Summer Cherry Ghosts

Album Review

Released in the summer of 2004, nearly three years after the Original Brothers and Sisters of Love's second album and a few months after the band's mutation into the Great Lakes Myth Society, Summer Cherry Ghosts is the first solo album by TOBASOL co-leader Timothy Monger. On his own, Monger leaves behind some of the signatures of his band, in particular a fondness for eerie folk songs and spinning stories, choosing to ground his solo work in a lush, lightly Baroque indie pop. It's a subtle yet notable shift from his work on the TOBASOL records, and it's a significant step forward for Monger, both as a musician and songwriter. He's crafted a sweetly nostalgic song cycle, filled with sketches of places and people he's loved, memories he treasures — in short, the ghosts of summers past. There's apparent affection in each song, whether it's for songs heard on the radio or lost romances, so it's appropriate that he's given all nine tunes intricately detailed, loving arrangements with echoes of British Invasion, '60s sunshine pop, Donovan, XTC, melancholic folk-rock, psychedelic pop, confessional '70s singer/songwriter, and pastoral pop. Each track is layered with ideas and allusions, but the arrangements aren't overly busy; by keeping the tracks succinct — most are three minutes or under, and the entire album clocks in at under a half-hour — Monger gives the music space to breathe, letting melodies, lyrics, and sounds linger in the mind long after they've finished. All these little details, in the recording and the writing, form an album that's lovely, intimate, affecting, and quite addictive. [In May 2005 Summer Cherry Ghosts was released in Japan on the Trolley Bus label with the bonus tracks "Hopewell Rocks!" and "Lighthousing."]