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Today, the Massachusetts duo Handsome Ghost (Tim Noyes & Eddie Byun) make an evolved return to their roots as they announce their new album ‘Some Still Morning’ (out May 15 on Photo Finish Records) and release first track “ Massachusetts ”.
After achieving major milestones with their 2014 breakout single “Blood Stutter” (over 20 million cumulative streams) off their Steps EP, followed by The Brilliant Glow EP (which included “Eyes Wide” -- 16.5 million Spotify streams) and their acclaimed 2018 debut LP Welcome Back , Handsome Ghost made a name for themselves as an artist not afraid to excavate unique personal travels through love, loss, isolation, and our travels through life, pairing nuanced songwriting with electronic flourishes and a pop sensibility.
But after a run of tour dates supporting their last album, they reentered the studio to silent frustration, hitting wall after wall as they tried to build on a sound they thought they needed to recreate, until a moment during a late-night recording session when the rising sun slowly seeped into the studio. A sense of renewal and clarity swept over them with the start of a new day.
"This record is about that moment at dawn right as the sun is coming up, when you’re able to look at everything -- good or bad -- with a fresh perspective,” says Noyes.
‘Some Still Morning’ is an album that serves as an elevated return to the folk-inspired songwriting that has always been the heart of Handsome Ghost. It’s an album that pairs its melancholy with an appreciative acceptance and peacefulness, acknowledging that you cannot have light without dark. Songs like “Weeds” and “Fifteen Countries” are delicately sung along a strumming guitar like an intimate fireside reflection on getting older & growing up, yet still looking back on the people and things that have made us who we are. Elsewhere, piano takes center stage on tracks like “Christmas In Jersey” and “Weeknight Crowd” matching the haunting nature of the album’s production and Noyes’ earnest vocals which can sometimes feel like a whispered secret.
The video for “Massachusetts” (also out today), which American Songwriter calls a “welcome start to Handsome Ghost’s imminent recollective journey,” captures the ways our memories can haunt us when it comes to love, reminding us of the steps we’ve taken with those who are no longer beside us. To American Songwriter, Noyes said that he wrote “Massachusetts” “about leaving the city, going back home and starting over. And the sadness that can come when a relationship ends. But I also wanted to try and convey my sense of peace in the place I am now, and even optimism too,” adding that this is a theme that permeates throughout the whole album, “There's an optimism, a sense of contentment, in the way these songs weed through the past. That's new for me.”
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