Cory Branan

“I pulled these songs from a batch of fifty that mostly predate the pandemic, and all of these felt kin. They’re about doubt, loss, depression, general stir-craziness.

“But I knew I didn’t want to make a record that pondered itself, I wanted it to have motion, so I gave this record an overarching rule: The sadder the song, the more it had to move and groove. That’s how the country weeper ‘That Look I Lost’ got the Motown treatment. I wanted you to nod along, then after listening ask, Wait, what am I shaking my ass to?”

When I Go I Ghost is Cory Branan’s sixth full length release. His first was 20 years ago: He ain’t  banging out pulp here.  A writer’s writer, Cory’s lines grip like a page-turner, giddy with interior rhyming and wordplay:

I took a shower but the shower didn’t take
– “O’ Charlene”

the kinda wreck I recognize
– “C’Mon If You Wanna Come”

You post a picture, notice the mixture
The camera captures
That ‘before and after’ look in your eye
– “C’Mon If You Wanna Come”

When she’s staring down the bad end of the barrel
Of yet another long and loaded night
– “That Look I Lost”

One propulsive song that jangles with hope is “Come On If You Wanna Come,” with lyrics about being too depressed – maybe too hungover – to venture out, accompanied by music that catches the buoyancy one feels after recovering. “’Come On’ is about as optimistic as I can get. We did all the fun Simmons 1980’s drum samples on there, and added concert toms, putting reverse gated reverb on the drums – an old ‘80s Cars-era trick. There’s Rickenbacker and a 12 string guitar. It’s a respite in the record. It evokes the Traveling Wilbury’s, though maybe a meth-y Wilburys.”