Following this year's Heaven and Hell EP, the Minus Story continue to scale back their manic instrumentation (the band would call it their "Wall of Crap"), here applying it to an unambiguously somber batch of songs. For those familiar with The Captain Is Dead, Let the Drum Corps Dance!, that album's "You Were on My Side" is a good reference point for the sound of their new album No Rest For Ghosts.
From the morose, existential lyrics to the goth cartoons in the liner notes and cross-stitched pink skull on the cover, No Rest for Ghosts aims for the cute side of the macabre. "Little Wet Head" describes being swallowed and regurgitated by an infant in disturbing detail ("You crawled, then you walked... you grew so huge that you blocked out the sun/ Then you go and you plant my head in your jaws"). That and "Waking Up" pick up the tempo at the center of the record, but love and loss loom heavy over the majority of the songs, particularly the slower tracks.
The mood may be monochromatic, but the band is never short on ideas. Percussion is inventive and clear as a bell, such as the thundering electric drums of "I Was Hit" or woodblocks that trip over themselves and fall into a bed of handclaps on "Knocking on Your Head." At other times, the sound seems cluttered, like when the piano and higher guitar notes bleed together on "Ringing in the Dark". Moreover, the percussion of "Knocking on Your Head" is more memorable than the melody, as are the backing vocals on the ponderously sad "Hold On". The touches in instrumentation make this an interesting listen with, like a walk on a rainy afternoon with a head full of stimulants, every detail flowering and compounding each other. But for better or for worse, the more the band holds back, the more the songs on No Rest for Ghosts rely on the featherweight vocals of frontman Jordan Geiger.
The spartan production is nothing new for the band, but the tamer they are, the more the lo-fi approach holds them back. Put the Minus Story in a room with Jon Brion or Dave Fridmann, they might come out with a masterpiece. For now, it sounds like someone let drama students loose in the band room.
