Calgary’s Crystal Eyes have shared “Ghostwriter,” the second single from their upcoming third LP “Secret Oscillator,” out Nov. 18.
Following up on the album’s first single “Pretending to Be People,” the new song shows the group’s knack for blending aspects of dream pop, shoegaze and various other genres under the unique Crystal Eyes banner.
On the jangly track, frontwoman Erin Jenkins sings over hazy melodies of having lived a lie and refusing to continue it. The group says, “To be a ghostwriter is to be invisible. 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.”
Jenkins tells Highway 81 Revisited: “I wanted the ending vocal section to have a choir-like quality to it. I grew up singing in choirs and really love how they sound. I typically spend at least 12 hours (sometimes more) recording backup vocals for our records; I consider them to be as important as the lead vocal in achieving the sound. It’s a very cathartic section of the song, it swells into this kind of beautiful feeling of release. Get it out so you can let it go.”
Crystal Eyes’ “Ghostwriter” makes its exclusive debut at Highway 81 Revisited today:
“Secret Oscillator” was produced by Andrew Woods and mixed by Mark Lawson, who was part of the team that won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2011 for Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs.”
Last month, Crystal Eyes released a music video for “Pretending to be People,” directed by Your Wild Friend (Ava Wild), which features a nod to Radiohead’s “Karma Police” video.
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