Tearjerker – Ghosts

How do you move on from a great first album, that’s always got to be any bands thoughts, but with Tearjerker it looks like this was something that came with a shit tonne of soul searching and personal hardships. It’s a bit of a juxtaposition, how can you have so much grief, loss and pain, yet turn that into something as meaningful and powerful as their new album Ghosts, a tribute to life’s losses and gains.

Having only listened to Tearjerker’s self titled debut album back when it hit the world in 2023, it was quite the shock when hitting play on this monster of an album. ‘Introvert’ is the opening shot and intro that leads in to the massive stadium band sound of ‘Imposter Syndrome’, a killer song that lays it out for the whole of this album, if your gonna go again, go fucking big or go home, this is passion and soul all wrapped up in twelve life affirming moments. There are so many songs on this album that take emotional shit and feed it into either sparks of life or lay bare the heartache of just being. ‘Siren’ is as song that could so easily have been dropped as a ballad, yet this fast as fuck melodic punk rock banger sits perfectly with the break up loss it portrays.  ‘If’ on the other hand, is a song of love and loss, the loss of family, which can leave you both sad and angry all at the same time, the anger of grief and sadness which ensues can consume you, this songs sound and delivery covers both in a perfectly balanced way.

What’s so all consuming about the second album from the Sunderland band though, is that full on go the fuck for it attitude that’s present in every single song, no matter how dark, sad, or emotionally charged, there is no holding back on volume or intensity of sound. ‘Not The One’ has shades of Social Distortion at its core, ‘Out Of Touch’ reminds of the good old days of another Sunderland band Former Cell Mates, but with added punk tempo, then ‘Jezebel’ dips its toes in the Alkaline Trio darkness. But ultimately this is an album that can only ever be listened to as Tearjerker now kicking down the doors of the big boys, this is a stadium filling sound that deserves every accolade it gets. Melodic Power Punk that’s turned up eleven!!!

Ghosts is due out on November 6th via Little Rocket Records (UK), Sell The Heart Records (US), Waterslide Records (Japan). Tearjerker will be playing an album release show on the 22nd November at Sunderland’s Independent with support from Bonny Lad & Trivia.