Yon Idy - Ghosts (Alter)

Singles often come at you like an unexpected blow to the sonic senses. They have one chance to grab your attention and usually do so via a quick one-two or a couple of sucker-punches to get your attention. There is, as they say, only one chance to make a good first impression.

But that is why I like albums more. With more time to lay out the sonic stall, more space to embrace any number of moods, and more room to explore various sounds and styles, you get a much more objective idea of an artist. A single can be a one-hit wonder; an album has to be consistent across a whole range of songs and maintain its sonic standards for the duration. And Ghosts, the debut album from rising Macedonian singer-songwriter, Yon Idy is a fine example of the scope and potential of the modern album.

To call Yon Idy a singer-songwriter is correct, but it is only one part of the story. Yes, his songs conform to such troubadour traditions, but he is an artist who understands the modern mainstream market, too. “Blood Red,” his recent single, embraces both the realm of the solo player and that of a searing alt-rock, full-band sound, ebbing and flowing between the two to build dynamic and anthemics.

The title track errs for a more pop route, a mature piece of poised and potent pop but pop nonetheless, pop-rock shot through with skittering beats and dance-infused grooves, and then you find songs such as “Reflections” that show a more understated and spacious approach to the pop form. “My Fire” is ambient and hazy, “In Time” is the sort of thing that Ed Sheeran will be popping around to buy off him any day now, and opener “Going Down” rocks as hard as any band from the heavier side of things could hope to, when the mood takes it.

Ghosts is the sound of the singer-songwriter moving with the times, the sound of an artist making full use of a musical landscape no longer full of rules and regulations, an artist able to blend the cultish with the commercial, able to appeal to the underground and the mainstream alike. An artist creating the sound of the future.

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