Daniel Davies - Ghost of the Heart (2024)

In the last decade, Daniel Davies has become a lauded composer of atmospheric,synth-heavy instrumental music-for film and TV scores, alongside JohnCarpenter on the director's Lost Themes albums, and on solo releases like Signalsand Spies. But in his previous musical life, Davies was a rocker, touring all overthe world with heavy bands like Year Long Disaster and Karma to Burn. Aftersetting rock music aside to focus on his soundtrack and instrumental work, themulti-instrumentalist has found himself falling back in love with loud guitarsover the past couple of years.Ghost of the Heart, the first full-length alt-rock album Davies has ever releasedunder his own name, captures the excitement of that rediscovered love. Aftera decade of making music that either had to match a filmed image or create amental one, he sounds liberated by the concrete, reliable logic of verse/chorus/verse. The songs on Ghost of the Heart don't fit neatly into any one subgenre:they're moody, heavy, and a little proggy, but with a strong pop sensibility andlots of melody. The album divulges Davies' affinity for hooky, forward-thinkingbands like Radiohead and Blur, but more than anything, Ghost of the Heart feelsnatural, like he's tapping back into something fundamental about himself as amusician. "My first love is writing rock songs," Davies says. "It just felt like theright time to get back to it."Ghost of the Heart is a special album for Davies. It sees him returning to hisorigins in rock music, but it also couldn't have been made without the lessons ofhis time in the film world. In the truest sense, it's a career-defining work, one thatshowcases everything he's learned in his decades as a musician. It reveals a doorthat, now opened, can take Davies anywhere he wants to go.