Are You Haunted? is the fourth album from Australian alt-poppers Methyl Ethel, the beguiling musical brainchild of Jake Webb. He already knows the answer to that question – "we all have these ghosts that linger in our present predicaments" – and just as the speout of the corner of our eyes, the record has no fixed form, shimmering just out of reach of our common understanding.
'Something to Worry About' is a perfect illustration of Webb's grasp of the science (or the paranormal) of dynamics, a spidery guitar line evolving into swelling waves of sound, the same motif looping over and over in rich textures throughout the track. Latest single 'Proof', featuring Stella Donnelly, is similarly ephemeral, switching easily from Flume-like synthsto organic grandeur and back again.
There are more grounded, straightforward moments as on the slinky MGMT-meets-disco of 'Neon Cheap', a wonderful showcase for Webb's striking, androgynous vocals which get close to Kate Bush on the sprawling but always slightly underwhelming 'Castigat Ridendo Mores'.
There seems to be a lull towards the middle of the album where 'One and Beat' opens in fairly dour fashion. But, typical of Methyl Ethel's aggressive reluctance to be categorised it produces one of the best vocal hooks on the record either side of a confounding minute or so of industrial noise – the band really make you work for it, and that won't be everyone's idea of fun.
The title of closing track 'In a Minute, Sublime' sounds like half of a perfect seven-word review of Are You Haunted? – in a minute sublime, in another ridiculous. And that is not necessarily a criticism, pointing as it does to Webb's preternatural ability to move between genres and tones like a ghost through walls, more often than not hitting the right notes but sometimes stretching the listener to breaking point on the way.
Words - Joe Ponting