Are You Haunted? finds Methyl Ethel in a soulless struggle with mortality

Hunkering down in the studio where many of their early works had been created, despite this return to the familiar, the band instead sets out on a new adventure – one that culminates in their most experimental and poppiest record to date: Are You Haunted?

Make no mistake, this may be their most easily accessible record in terms of production, but it is by far their darkest. Tying together the sheen of synthesizers, the group tackles heavy subject matter such as mortality and despair; however, the scales are always tipped to one side or the other, never fully finding a balance between subject matter production.

Take the song “Matters” for example. The music and the emotion never quite mesh together, instead the ‘80s techno elements nearly drown out the vocals, deterring away from the emotional journey and into the clubs for the dance floor. When compared with a more authentic balance such as on the track “Ghosting,” where the wistful piano replicates the feeling of moving backward, each key a fragile step toward a cliff that gets closer with each note. Similarly, “Proof” follows in a similar vein, as the erratic strings and pounding drums replicate the heart-racing anxiety that comes when those moments of existential dread creep in.

The themes across Are You Haunted? tackle some of life’s most serious subject matter: mortality and the inevitability of time are subjects that are hard to pin down and require a certain touch for the ambition they require. While the band lacks the touch, they make up for it with plenty of ambition. A prime example is “One and Beat,” where the song itself is just about six minutes in length, but crumbles under the weight of the clock it so desperately tries to immortalize. “Castigat Ridendo Mores” on the other hand is an ethereal ballad that feels as weightless as space, free from time and the ghosts that haunt it.

While the album asks the important question of Are You Haunted? the answer is an easy one: “yes.” However, frontman Jake Webb attempts to find healing in song, a way to purge the demons of the past and to welcome the future before him, no matter how anxiety inducing that may be. Along the way he finds himself a strong body of work, too bad it lacks any real soul to come alive.