Shiny & New Turns 2: #10 "Ghosts" - Siobhan Donaghy

"Full mug my friends certainly familiar / Ah, hear that glitch say search the orbs"

The story of Siobhan Donaghy is perhaps heartbreakingly sad: possessed of an extraordinary songwriting talent and beautiful, mournful voice, she has released two excellent alt-pop albums, but unlike similar female artists who have made a minor stamp on the mainstream and garnered an enormous, dedicated fanbase, she failed to break through. It is unlikely she will ever make another album. Nevertheless, we (and I) will always have her first two works: the cool, offbeat, but unutterably blue Revolution In Me and her 2007 follow up, the soaring, epic, heart-swelling, eery Ghosts.

It was actually Ghosts I heard first (it is still my favourite) and it's an album packed full of songs that are meaningful to me. The producer of the album had previously worked with (more middle-of-the-road acts) U2, Keane, and Dido but you wouldn't guess. Ghosts is full of unusual witchy touches: spooky swelling bells, looming out of the dark, juddering, flickering falling star-like synth noises. On the album's last track, the eponymous "Ghosts", Donaghy's vocals are treated so as to sound like they've been looped backwards (there is actually a secret message hidden backwards in the middle of the song). The tune is about as pop as you'll get, all syncopated, soaring melody and changing chords underneath, that make it exhilarating despite being repeated for most of the song. Those aforementioned bells swamp the whole thing in mystery. When I first heard it I was almost hypnotised, it has a magic about it. It's just a shame we probably won't get to hear more of Siobhan and her extraordinary voice.