Review: Phantom Eye – For Want Of (LP)

 

    Jesse Norris’ latest (and strongest) from solo project Phantom Eye is a near-perfect blend of post-punky romanticism and basement diary. Album opener “The Horns In Your Heart May Stop You” immediately evokes the sonics of Joy Division and early New Order, but is craftily adapted to soundtrack the inner dramas and traumas of the artist. “Girl (2025 Version)” has the unenviable task of following "THIYHMSY" but it kills at that assignment. It has just as much throb as its 2024 predecessor but with more nuance. And feeling. All songs here offer the listener varying degrees of wistful melancholia. Pieces like “Drowned Out” kinda lead one to hear the last 30-plus years of the Cure if it had been recorded in the first 10 (imaginary) years. Or vice versa? For Mr. Norris (who wrote and produced and played all the instruments), For Want Of is the culmination of 5 years of personal struggle, growth, and just working through shit. Kinda mad at myself for mentioning those other more famous old bands in this review because this is not for one second any kind of tribute. And it doesn't sound old, either. Phantom Eye is the product of an expressive soul with the musical vocabulary to back that expression.  

-Harmless


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