Album Review: Ghostpoet - Some Say I So I Say Light

Ghostpoet is not a happy man, and if you can keep the headphones on for 50 minutes neither will you be. He's trapped in an unnamed British city that is neither the pantomime villain nor grimy hero they play so well; and that Some Say I So I Say Light casts only as a place from which to escape. “Take me out the flames/Send me down the Thames” is the line, and the listener gets the impression that our narrator would leave on a burning ghat if he could. Ghostpoet rhymes about regrets and reproaches; never reverence.

The sheer degree of introspection leads to moments of self-awareness. “Take me to a place where I'd rather go/I seldom know” on Plastic Bag Brain leads to “Maybe it's time/to find out where I want to be” on Thymethymethyme, but the chink of light never gets bigger than that. Sonically, the hungover glottal stops and trailing anti-rhymes are more than a little like Roots Manuva, but there is none of the boom-bap or humour that lighten his releases – that's the problem.

It's not that this is an album totally unworthy of your time. The rhymes are considered and the production is tight. It's just so unrelentingly downbeat that it is very, very hard to love. This reviewer had to listen to A Rollerskating Jam Named Saturday eight times to compensate for every play of Dial Tones. No gun chat, but this rap album contains triggers.