Search - Frozen Ghost :: Essentials

Frozen Ghost's Momentum Arrested by Sheriff

James M. Cayon | Northampton, MA United States | 05/28/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"To this day, "Should I See" is one of the GREAT Eighties singles and the sort of song the Fixx might have brought out had they had....guitar cajones (no offense, Mr. Hine) but what has to be the decade's most unheralded (and oh-so-lyrically relevant) track is 1988's "Pauper In Paradise", an absolutely flawless pop masterpiece that serves as a matching bookend to that year's "Ship Of Fools" by World Party. Along with "Broken Land" by the Adventures and "No New Tale To Tell" by Love and Rockets, the four pretty much summed up the nation's mood in Spring 1988: terribly disillusioned and a lot more cynical, but not hopeless.



"Pauper In Paradise" might've made a far more memorable impact in the States were it not for unforeseen developments with Arnold David Lanni and Wolf Hassel's OTHER project, a very commercial ensemble called Sheriff, who went totally ballistic without warning long after I picked up their record on the cheap and was leveled by lead singer Freddie Currci's impossibly high vocal register. The music was decidedly reminiscent of Boston, not at all topical like 'the Ghost' and mostly catchier than flypaper. So in true Eighties fashion, it was the weakest number to become virtually inescapable that summer, "When I'm With You", and as such effectively signaled the end of Frozen Ghost despite one last album a few years later in 1991. Don't own this yet, but would be curious to hear some of the other songs....."