The trip-hop rhythms may have been replaced by a more varied range of beats ... but the mood and manner of Ghostpoet’s fourth album is steeped in much the same themes and textures, hauled up to date and delivered in a nonchalant deadpan akin to Roots Manuva.
Ghostpoet continues his hypnotic accounts of the social and political climate of inner city life, always the urban messenger.
Detailed with offbeat twists and turns, it warrants celebratory Appletinis all-round.
A fantastically uniformed piece, ‘Dark Days + Canapés’ boasts a rare sense of unity, the aural palette bringing together hugely disparate elements to conjure something of real impact.
Listening to Dark Days & Canapés, the world feels just that bit darker. The album is an expertly crafted assault on the fallacy that ignorance is bliss, an eye-opening invitation to see our society for what it really is.
It never sounds completely oppressive, balancing its darkest moments with some lighter tones, Ghostpoet’s starkest lyrics with slightly more optimistic meditations.
Dark Days + Canapés is quite simply Ghostpoet’s most accomplished record to date. As lyrically smart as his debut, and building on three albums’ worth of musical experimentation, it feels like Ejimiwe has finally found his niche.
Dark Days + Canapés is haunting and unnerving, pulled together by a musician who, this time, takes in not just personal strifes, but political angst too.
You couldn’t describe this music as low key; rather, it’s consistently dark, claustrophobic and gripping.
An album that's more about personal politics than global ones, but that still feels scored through with the suffocating disquiet of life in 2017.
Ghostpoet’s vocals are delivered in a consistent, mumbled, emotionally-drained understatement throughout, lending the album a sense of authenticity that it could not survive without.
Dark Days + Canapes is a cool, unaffected album that deserves some close listening, though the rewards uncovered don’t go far beyond glum observations.
Poet and musician Obaro Ejimiwe’s fourth album opens with a groan. So the mood is set for the rest of this exhaustingly bleak record; a grey-skied documentation of modern hot-button issues.
A dark and gritty record, which has some cool ideas but ultimately lacks flair or charm.
Best Track: Many Moods At Midnight
Worst Track: Blind As a Bat...
Best album of his career. He owns the deeper sound and though it's darker, his hooks are more accessible and memorable than ever.
1 | One More Sip 1:32 | |
2 | Many Moods at Midnight 4:00 | |
3 | Trouble + Me 4:53 | |
4 | (We're) Dominoes 4:20 | |
5 | Freakshow 4:05 | |
6 | Dopamine If I Do 3:39 | |
7 | Live>Leave 3:48 | |
8 | Karoshi 3:13 | |
9 | Blind as a Bat... 4:39 | |
10 | Immigrant Boogie 2:40 | |
11 | Woe is Meee 4:08 | |
12 | End Times 3:33 |
#6 | / | The Independent |
#13 | / | MOJO |
#39 | / | Fopp |
#47 | / | Q Magazine |
#50 | / | Piccadilly Records |
#63 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#77 | / | Les Inrocks |
/ | Esquire (UK) |