New Music: Crystal Eyes – Ghostwriter

With the release of their third album almost upon us, Calgary’s Crystal Eyes have shared a second featured number, Ghostwriter.

Following on from last month’s Pretending to Be People, and the second single from the Secret Oscillator album, Ghostwriter wears its influences and its heart on its sleeve. Vocalist Erin Jenkins sings of ‘having lived a lie and refusing to continue it,’ as the band deftly and delicately sweeps us up in an ever-moving, gently shimmering melange of indie, post-punk, and shoegaze. It has a refreshing lack of artifice, something that threads a layer of vulnerability into the arrangement – reflecting the lyrical content and Jenkins’ delivery – accepting that control is an illusion, ready to take chances and risk being hurt.

“To be a ghostwriter is to be invisible,” discloses the band about the lyrics. “It’s easier to pretend to be someone else, to live inside someone else’s skin. There’s a certain comfort in a pseudonym, but to be a whole, free, flying human, you have to break away from it.”

“This song is an invitation to shake off the superficiality that defines most polite adult conversation, and actually be yourself, with kindness, love, and a reciprocal willingness to truly see the ‘other’ standing in front of you.”

Crystal Eyes release Secret Oscillator on the 18th of November, with the album available to pre-order on Bandcamp in digital format. You can find pre-save options for the album here; for LP and band updates, make sure you follow Crystal Eyes on Instagram.