Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost

It’s been a whirlwind few years for Modern Baseball. Born from the acoustic workings of Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald, over the past half a decade the quartet have gone from strength-to-strength, earning themselves critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase to boot. Now, with their third record, they’re taking a bolder step.

While there are the quieter, more introspective moments – the raw opening title track and mid-album highlight ‘Hiding’ stand out – their third album sees the band sounding that much more refined, that much bigger. ‘Wedding Singer’ kicks things off with vigour before ‘Note To Self’ sees the band paint a brilliantly introspective picture of life. ‘Everyday’ comes packed with a headrush of guitars, while ‘Breathing In Stereo’ starts all ragged and rough around the edges, but soon becomes another gorgeous moment.

Even with the album split in two - very literally, with half written by Lukens, half by Ewald - there’s an innate coherence that rides through the record’s veins. Throughout, they still manage to delve into the perfectly-formed vignettes and clear-cut imagery that litter their early efforts, but the striking instrumentation allows their lyrics - and more importantly, their stories - to hit that much harder, making ‘Holy Ghost’ a truly brilliant full-length.