It’s Friday the 13th, and what better way to celebrate than with another Love Ghost album, suitably called thirteen.
By Graeme Smith
We’ve been all over the California-based artist’s work since 2023, delighted by his ability to experiment. I’ve gone as far as calling him “one of the voices of his generation.”
thirteen is a combination of two threads that Love Ghost has been pulling at. The first is hard rock, something we’ve heard from him before through his collab record with Skold. The second is his love for all things Mexican, which he celebrated on Cintas Perdidas: México just two months ago. Church For A Vampire has a Latin undercurrent flowing through a heavy, head-banging composition.
The title carries more weight than its release date suggests. Finnegan Bell, the man behind Love Ghost, was expelled from school at 13, the age he says he first felt he didn’t belong. He calls thirteen “probably the most vulnerable record I’ve ever made”, and that sense of being on the outside looking in runs through all 13 songs.
Pasadena has the dark emo moodiness that we’ve grown to love from the artist. Desperate vocals are matched to sludgy rock instrumentals. It perfectly introduces the themes of the album, which include feeling like an outsider and struggling to release bad memories.
Into The Wood goes acoustic, channelling Midwest grunge while pairing it with a rapped hip-hop verse to great effect. The vibe flows through to Turpentine This House, an early, cinematic highlight.
Can’t Run Forever, Am I Evil, and Something In The Water continue in this intimate, introspective way before the seething Snake Boy tees up Blood & Roses. Rich with storytelling, it throws off the inward focus to move into a world of dark romance. Supported by a smouldering groove, it’s another highlight.
Dog Teeth and Rosaries contrasts it nicely with a stripped-back demo-like quality that lets the emotion of the lyrics do the talking. Pointless has a lingering first verse before the hard rock returns for a punching chorus. A final duo consists of the unexpected military chant of I Left My Home and the devastating Filthy Hands.
As much as I’ve enjoyed Love Ghost’s experimentation with style and genre, thirteen feels like his arrival. You can tell that he’s put so much of himself – his raw honesty – into it. Bell describes the album as a collection of memories he probably should have buried, and that shows. It’s an album about finding something beautiful in the uglier parts of life. It’s dark, but accessibly so. Blood & Roses has the capacity to be his biggest track yet, and nothing on this record feels like filler.
thirteen is out now, and you can listen to it below.