<p><span><span>- Sleepless existential dread sums up my feelings of listening to <em>Ghost Town</em>. <em>In a good way</em>. Following up from 2018’s <em>Native Tongue</em>, Mojo Juju teams up with producer Joelistics once again for a contemplative EP exploring the thoughts that keep us awake in the dark. Doubts and lost loves because they’re never about taxes.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>I’ve dabbled with Mojo Juju’s music over the years and I mostly know Joelistics from his <strong>TZU</strong> days. While I found <em>Native Tongue</em> a little too much to handle, <em>Ghost Town</em> is more palatable. It still has all the personal torments but it only takes seven tracks to get through them.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The opener, <em>Good Times</em>, and the titular <em>Ghost Town </em>sum up the internal struggles that appear when you least expect them to. <em>Good Times</em> takes a self-depreciating tone, trying to mediate the harsh realities of following a dream and maybe coming up empty. <em>Ghost Town</em> feels like being asleep at the wheel and directionless with its ethereal and minimalist instrumentation and its pauses.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>We're already in difficult emotional territory but <em>Saint Valentine, Blowback, Like Crazy </em>and <em>Cruel (When You’re Cold)</em> gang up together for the autopsy of a bad breakup. Collectively, they’re all the bitterness and bile that just saps every bit of energy you have, so that you wonder what the point of love and relationships is. <em>Saint Valentine</em> has a desperate, pleading quality, still trying to save the dying relationship, while <em>Blowback</em> is the immediate aftermath served on a chilled '90’s r'n'b vibe. If those two are the before and after, <em>Like Crazy</em> and <em>Cruel (When You’re Cold)</em> show that time is not always a healer, depicting the complete death-state where all that’s left is cold spite.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Six tracks in and it’s a bit of a downer and I wanted to lie down, perhaps in a foetal position, but <em>Leave It All Behind</em> woke me right up for the finish. While most of the EP is like late night contemplation with a sprinkle of wallowing, the final track goes almost all out in a reaffirmation of self and intent. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>It’s fitting that this is the follow up to <em>Native Tongue</em>, addressing all the unpleasantness Mojo Juju experienced after its release. I’m always up for some fire and fury although I wish <em>Leave It All Behind </em>went a bit harder. It's just my preference but it takes a lot to counteract all the horror that comes before. Speaking of which, <em>Ghost Town </em>has grown on me. It snuck up behind me just like the dread that consumes us all and its cold embrace feels a lot more honest than most of the records that come out at this time of year.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Emmanuel Hernaez.</span></span></p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2200901645/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="http://mojojujuxjoelistics.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-town">Ghost Town by Mojo Juju X Joelistics</a></iframe>