After the release of
Ohmme's debut album, 2018's
Parts, the group went on a lengthy tour that took them out of their hometown of Chicago and across the United States. Spending several months wandering the nation's highways through one unfamiliar town after another isn't an experience that agrees with everyone, and though
Ohmme's second LP, 2020's
Fantasize Your Ghost, doesn't directly concern itself with life on the road, the rootlessness, anxiety, and uncertainty that come with it hovers in the background of this music. As on
Parts, the blend of
Sima Cunningham and
Macie Stewart's voices and guitars is beautiful even as it reveals a very real emotional grit; their harmonies are remarkably intuitive, with the whole of their voices delivering significantly more than the sum of their parts (particularly on the oddly romantic closer "After All" and the clean precision of "Flood Your Gut"). And the guitar work is thoroughly compelling, whether they're creating languid backdrops on "Some Kind of Calm," constructing a landscape of noise and chaos on "Sturgeon Moon," or raising a punk-inspired ruckus on "Selling Candy." Though there's a certain poetic abstraction in the lyrics, the contemplation of betrayal in "Twitch," the day-to-day malaise of "3 2 4 3," the ennui and depression of "Spell It Out," and the rancorous division of "Ghost" ring loud and clear, all emotions common to people living on a margin of too much stress and too little reward. And percussionist
Matt Carroll's instincts in how to add to the mood and framework of these songs are impressive throughout.
Fantasize Your Ghost is less playful and edgier than
Parts; at the same time, it's more thematically and musically ambitious, and
Ohmme sound stronger and more assured here, even when they paradoxically sound their most uncertain.