Hey Music Lover –
It’s 2018 – how ’bout that? Time for an Album of the Month so let’s hit the way back machine to 1990 for an really great album we have never featured – the Green Pajamas Ghosts Of Love. I have a tremendous fondness for this album and think it one of their best, but what did the critics say?
“An astonishing album of such incandescent intensity that the Pajamas all but self-destructed during its making,” Phil McMullen – Ptolmaic Terrascope.
“The Green Pajamas vision as we know it first coalesced on Ghosts of Love. As the sole songwriter here, Kelly lets a folk undercurrent flow lushly through the album; many of the melodies sound like the first generation of American music, when Scotch-Irish and British song were still fresh in the cultural memory. Combining olde worlde tunes with Kelly’s newfound skill at storytelling, “Wedding Day,” “Surfacing” and “The Death of Molly Bernard” wander the record’s landscape like ghosts from which you can’t look away, even as their fingers caress your cheek. He lightens the tone, if not exactly the mood, with the catchy pop cuts “Walking in the Rain” and “The Thousand Days,” the gnarly rocker “End of Love,” the moody swoonfest “Angles of Passion” and the epic folk rock meditation “The Ghost of Love.” Throughout, the group’s love of ’60s psychedelia informs the music without dominating it. With a graceful balance of modern production values, carefully wrought arrangements and consistently strong songwriting, Ghosts of Love stands as one of Green Pajamas’ masterpieces.” Michael Toland – Trouser Press
“Yet another early Green Pajamas album that screams out injustice because way too few were giving it the proper exposure. At this point Jeff Kelly has taken over all the songwriting and lead vocals and we, the listeners, are richly rewarded for it. Just listen to ‘Angles of Passion’ and feel the vibes as layers of instruments from all over Fremont frame the exceptional vocals of Jeff. Other great songs are strategically dispersed among some mellower tracks. Seattle’s best kept secret is still an active band and enjoying a long run.” otismidnight
We have it available in our store as a download and we still have a few 12″LPs from the original Green Monkey/Bomp! release. If you want it on CD, it looks like Get Hip, who reissued it in the 90’s, has some left. http://www.gethip.com/site/store/green-pajamas-ghosts-of-love/
The album was also released on DiDi Music in Greece with some different tracks – you can find one of those used on Discogs if you need it!
td Jan 2018
