HOSPITAL SHIPS
If Oh, Ramona was Jordan Geiger’s bedroom-pop debut album, then Lonely Twin is the sound of Geiger’s Hospital Ships solo project moving up to a three-room suite. Exploding outward on album opener “Love Or Death,” Geiger gives voice to those “...on the outside, always looking in,” while injecting enough electronic beats, buzzing organ riffs, and joyous handclaps to elevate this sophomore Hospital Ships album from modest humility to self-assured confidence.
Perhaps that’s because Geiger, a native of Lawrence, Kansas, former member of Shearwater and the Appleseed Cast, and principal member of the now-defunct Minus Story, has taken the fractured Midwestern influences of The Flaming Lips and Bright Eyes to fresh new heights. “Honey Please” is a rollicking slice of queasy, off-kilter rock, but tender tracks like “Bird In Furs” and “Phantom Limb” revisit Geiger’s bedroom strengths: intimate, majestic moments of indie-pop beauty that rise and fall with the crescendos and valleys of his high-pitched tenor.
Lonely Twin also alights in AM pop, doom rock, and dusty folk territory, but through it all, Jordan Geiger maintains a balance between optimism and desperation, both necessary attributes to survive in these turbulent times. With Lonely Twin, Geiger ventures out of his comfort zone and into the delightful yet dark surrounding world. It’s a journey on which you’ll definitely want to join him. File under: Midwestern Existential Fuzz-Pop.
GRAVE056 : Lonely Twin CD/LP
GRAVE053 : Carry On b/w Bird In Furs 7"
GRAVE039 : Oh, Ramona CD
Audio - Bitter Radio Single (from Oh, Ramona) ::: Anyone Everyone (from Lonely Twin)