Review by: Tara Howell
Modern Baseball (MoBo) – Holy Ghost
Rate: 9/10
LIYL: Say Anything, The Front Bottoms, Joyce Manor, The Hotelier, Sorority Noise
My favorite tracks: “Wedding Singer”, “Breathing in Stereo”, and “Just Another Face”
Modern Baseball has been one of my favorite bands for a while now. My love affair started on my very first day of work at WLOY, where my coworker and now really great friend told me to listen to their song, “Your Graduation”, after asking him what song reminded him of high school. It took me a little bit to finally sit down and listen, but when I did, I fell hard. Don’t even ask me to pick a favorite album. That’s like picking a favorite best friend.
All of their albums are unique in their own right, and there is one word that unifies them all – honesty. Whether you decide to listen to Sports , You’re Gonna Miss It All, or their newest, Holy Ghost, each one talks about life issues in an honest and compelling way. Sports spends a lot of time talking about relationships, both good and bad. My favorite track is “The Weekend”, which believe is the most perfect, kinda cheesy but not overbearingly sappy love song. With lyrics like “you’ve got a smile that could light this town, and we might need it. Cause it gets dark around here, real dark around here. Most of my old friends, I can only stand for the weekend, but that doesn’t apply here. That doesn’t apply here”, you can’t help but feel the raw emotion behind it. MoBo grows up, sharpens up, and gets a little tougher with You’re Gonna Miss It All. I can best describe this album as one that just shreds. “Your Graduation” is on this album, and I think is the highlight track of the album, and quite possibly one of MoBo’s best.
After You’re Gonna Miss It All, the band released The Perfect Cast EP. Each song on this EP is a solid song, and none of the tracks disappoint.
Holy Ghost was released in early May, and was sent into the station for review. I had very high expectations for this album already, but this album really surpassed anything I could have ever expected. I find one of MoBo’s strong suits that they can write an album that works well as a full album. I think a cohesive and proper album that demands you to listen to the entire thing is something very hard to come by. Holy Ghost was written and divided into 2 parts – the first part written by Jake and the second by Brendan. Both sing on the album, but aren’t singing exclusively on their side of the album. This album has the raw honesty of all of their previous releases, but is older. Wiser. Grown up. You can tell the band has done a lot of growing even just from the EP release last fall. With deeper cuts, and discussion of deeper topics like death, life, and mental health. It’s the Modern Baseball style that we have grown to love, but I can feel this band growing up right in front of my eyes just. Being so close in age to the band members, I really feel like I’m growing up with them.
Whether you are a fan of pop punk, indie rock, or even emo, I really feel like you will enjoy the album. Taking the best of all of these genres, and putting their own spin on it, creating a unique and unparalleled sound. You may not recognize the name, or you may think that pop punk is high school, but this album is a strong contender to even the biggest mainstream releases. MoBo may be the underdogs, I believe in this band, and this album. They are a serious force to be reckoned with.