Ethereal progsters School Of Seven Bells were plunged into existential calumny when one third of the group – singer Claudia Deheza – quit mid-tour in 2010. Reduced to a duo, former Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and Claudia’s twin sister Alejandra, have responded to the involuntary downsizing by magnifying their sound, A concept record about a young girl’s friendship with a spirit, Ghostory takes their nu-gaze aesthetic widescreen, with urgent beats (‘The Night’), a supersized Cocteau Twins throb (‘Lafaye’) and even a tilt at creepy torch song (‘Savager’).
In interviews they’ve said the album is about the things that haunt us as we go through life, which might be taken as a reference to Claudia’s unexpected departure (the siblings remain estranged), or the tragic sputtering out of Curtis’ first band Tripping Daisy (guitarist Wes Berggren suffered a fatal overdose). Rather than something intimidating and glacial, however, they’ve created perhaps their warmest collection yet (it’s certainly a lot more approachable than their pretty yet distant second outing Disconnect From Desire). Where Deheza’s vocals once felt studiously disembodied, here her singing transmits palpable emotion, while Curtis’ guitar has moved beyond the obvious Edge-isms he used to indulge in. Ghostory may be an album full of chain-clanking harbingers of despair, but School Of Seven Bells feel more fully present, more flesh and blood, than at any previous point in their career.