The Ghost of Hope

The Ghost of Hope is an album by The Residents, released by Cherry Red Records, MVD Audio and Psychofon Records on March 24th 2017. In keeping with the group's tradition of blending narrative with multi-layered soundscapes, The Ghost of Hope is a "historically accurate" concept album which explores the "great train wrecks" of late 19th century America. 
The Residents' founding producer and composer Hardy Fox contributed to The Ghost of Hope early in its production; he retired from The Residents and their management company The Cryptic Corporation in 2016, at which point production duties were assumed by Eric Drew Feldman.
The Residents supported the album's release with the release of a single, "Rushing Like a Banshee", a one-off live performance at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and an international tour, In Between Dreams. Fox later developed his early sketches for The Ghost of Hope into a new suite of music, Nachtzug, which he issued as a solo release in 2018.Hardy Fox, "NACHTZUG - NIGHT TRAIN", up no. 3, May 10th 2018
== History ==
=== Background ===
Ever since the release of The Residents' ambient "documentary" album Eskimo in 1979, the group had long wished to create another album in a similar format."[The Residents] had also wanted to revisit, from a form point of view... something similar to their Eskimo album, in a lot of ways... ever since Eskimo. And so, the form of the... train wreck album is closer to Eskimo, probably, than anything else that they've done, in that it's very multi-layered, it's a collage of... music, sound effects, singing, uh, spoken word, uh, textural stuff..." Homer Flynn, "Interview: Homer Flynn", Make Weird Music (via YouTube), May 28th 2016 One member of The Residents had long had a "great fascination and love affair" with trains; another Resident, aware of this fascination, suggested at one point that the group should create a project based on the subject of trains, however they struggled to find the right approach,"You know, there is one of The Residents in particular that's always had this great fascination and love affair with trains. And, um... it was really another one that suggested doing something with trains, because... knowing how much... this one loved trains, thought 'well, it'd be interesting to do something about trains'. [...] But typically with The Residents, well, I mean, what are you... just doing to do with... trains, you know? You have to go somewhere with it." Homer Flynn, "Interview: Homer Flynn", Make Weird Music (via YouTube), May 28th 2016 and the idea remained unrealised for a number of years (although The Residents' interest in trains would nevertheless be reflected in projects such as the 2012 photo book and CD Night Train to Nowhere!). 
This changed in 2014, when The Residents discovered a Kindle eBook titled Death by Train, a collection of newspaper articles on train wrecks and train-related fatalities from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The "interesting tension" created by the juxtaposition of the "elegant and eloquent" language of the era against the sheer horror of the events described in the articles, inspired The Residents to begin work on a new project inspired by these stories.
By this time, The Residents had largely become a live touring outfit for financial reasons, touring the world in a three person line-up, with each member taking on an individual persona: Randy Rose, the singer; Charles Bobuck, the composer and keyboardist, and Lionel Bob, the guitarist. This line-up commenced a trilogy of tours, Talking Light, The Wonder of Weird and Shadowland, lasting from 2009 until 2016, with the group releasing little new studio material during this period. 
=== Recording ===
The Residents began work on The Ghost of Hope in 2014, with their founding composer and producer Hardy Fox (then working under the alias Charles Bobuck) creating a series of sketches and demos for the project around this time. Fox originally intended to have The Ghost of Hope (the group's first major studio project since The Bunny Boy five years earlier) completed and released by September 2015, however the project developed slowly due to The Residents' ongoing touring commitments, which prevented them from recording at their usual pace. 
Citing "old age issues" and a desire to return to the studio,Tom D'Antoni, "What's new with the Residents and all of the people who might be them", Oregon Music News, February 2nd 2017 Hardy Fox retired from live performance with The Residents in 2015 during the Shadowland tour, being replaced by a new member known as "Rico". Fox then retired altogether from The Residents and their management company The Cryptic Corporation the following year. Towards the end of the Shadowland tour in 2016, The Residents returned to the studio with a new co-producer, Eric Drew Feldman (formerly of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band), who had previously stood in for Fox on the group's Demons Dance Alone tour in 2003. 
By the time it was completed, The Residents had been working on The Ghost of Hope for three years, its lengthy production mirroring that of their earlier "documentary" album Eskimo. Fox's early contributions to the album were elaborated upon in the studio by The Residents and Feldman after Fox's retirement; The Ghost of Hope is thus the last Residents album to feature Fox as an active contributor, although Fox later claimed that his contributions to the final album were "minimal".
Past collaborators who returned for The Ghost of Hope included vocalist Carla Fabrizio, guitarist Nolan Cook and voice actress Isabelle Barbier. The album also marked the first appearance of several new collaborators, such as Laurie Hall, Peter Whitehead and Gabriel Shepard (all of whom would also later work with The Residents on their next album, Intruders).
== Concept ==
The Ghost of Hope is a "documentary" album (a format previously pioneered by The Residents on their 1979 album Eskimo), which uses the familiar elements of music, spoken word, sonic textures and sound effects to explore "the great train wrecks" of late 19th century America. In promotional materials from the time of the album's release, it is described as "historically accurate". 
The album's concept was inspired by Death by Train, a 2014 Kindle eBook collecting around sixty vintage newspaper articles on train wrecks and other train-related fatalities, dating from the late 1800s to the early 1900s."Sometimes these things pop up more or less intact... other times they evolve with the creative process, or with research, which can kind of be the same thing. [...] And, um, with [The Ghost of Hope], 'okay, well, train wrecks, what can we find out about train wrecks?' And what they found was a book, for want of a better term. It's really, uh, a Kindle download... a collection of newspaper articles... from the late 1800s to early, uh, 1900s, and it's called Death by Train. And, ultimately, it's not just train wrecks, I mean, [there are] a lot of train wrecks in it. But it's also, you know, people who fall on the tracks, and the train runs over them, and they get cut in half." Homer Flynn, "Interview: Homer Flynn", Make Weird Music (via YouTube), May 28th 2016Death by Train: Horrifying Yet True Stories of Train Wrecks and Accidents 1879-1927 Kindle eBook at Amazon The Residents found particular interest in the contrast between the era's eloquent language and the devastating events described by the news articles; this juxtaposition directly inspired most of the album's lyrics,"So they started reading this book, and what they found that was particularly fascinating, was the language of that era was so elegant and eloquent, but the events that they were describing were so completely horrific, that the juxtaposition of the language against the events created a, kind of, an interesting tension. And, uh, in a lot of ways, that became, at least from the point of view of the text, became a lot of the inspiration for [...] the lyrics." Homer Flynn, "Interview: Homer Flynn", Make Weird Music (via YouTube), May 28th 2016 with the group ultimately selecting around ten to twelve of the articles to adapt for the album. 
In The Ghost of Hope, each incident is first described and then depicted in song; this is sometimes followed by a perspective from a witness or participant (a similar narrative device had been employed on The Residents' 2005 concept album Animal Lover).Sean Westergaard, "The Ghost of Hope Review", AllMusic, ca. March 2017 As with the earlier Eskimo and Animal Lover, listeners are encouraged to enhance their understanding of the album's narrative by reading an included text while they listen; in the case of the CD edition of The Ghost of Hope, a 32 page booklet featuring the stories depicted on the album. 
The Residents' former producer Hardy Fox suggested that the album's title "implies a positive outlook on uncertainty. Ghost of Hope could be pointing to 'dead hope' or 'a lingering hint of hope'. That depends on the definition of the word 'ghosts'. A Patrick Swayze ghost is different from Ringu." 
== Cover art ==
The Poor Know Graphics cover art for The Ghost of Hope is notable as the first Residents album cover to feature the group's iconic eyeball masks, top hats and tuxedos since the retirement of those costumes in the late 2000s. In the album art, the eyeball-masked Residents are seen closely inspecting wrecked trains; on the album's front cover, a stock photo of a Resident is superimposed onto an image of two trains about to crash. 
The photos of the eyeball-masked Residents were not newly shot for the album, but originate from a 1997 photo session which has frequently been used as "stock" photography in The Residents' artwork in the years since - the image seen on the cover of The Ghost of Hope itself had previously been featured in one of the selection menus on The Residents' 2004 DVD release Commercial DVD.The album's imagery (apart from the title) is predominantly sepia-toned, reflecting the late 19th century setting of much of the album's narrative. A similar sepia-toned image of an eyeball-masked figure working on a steam train had been featured in the artwork for the live archival box set Kettles of Fish on the Outskirts of Town in 2003. Retired Cryptic Hardy Fox noted that the album's title is presented in "surprisingly large type" which "consumes almost a third of the cover... so the words have to be important, even 'shouted' with capital letters".
On all vinyl editions of the album, a small "Real Residents" seal is added to the bottom left of the front cover, indicating The Ghost of Hope as the first major project by the new incarnation of the group who toured in support of the album in 2017 and 2018, and separating the album from the "Randy, Chuck and Bob" personae who had toured internationally in the years prior to the album's release.
==Release==
The Ghost of Hope was hinted at by The Residents' singer Randy Rose on his blog Maurice and Me in January 2016.Randy Rose, untitled post, Maurice and Me, January 19th 2016 It was officially announced following the conclusion of the Shadowland tour, with the album's lead single, "Rushing Like a Banshee", being released on 7" vinyl by Psychofon Records in October 2016. The single was also accompanied by a music video by artist John Sanborn, which was released on YouTube in November.
On March 7th 2017, a video teaser for the album was released, promoted by a feature in Billboard.Gary Graff, "The Residents’ ‘The Ghost of Hope’: Legendary Cult Band Shares Video Teaser for New Album", Billboard, March 7th 2017 On March 15th, Hardy Fox promoted the upcoming release of the album with the twelfth issue of his Hacienda Bridge mailing list newsletter, in which the album is discussed in a three-way interview between Fox and his two personae, Charles Bobuck and Will Rothers.
The Ghost of Hope was released on CD on March 24th 2017 by Cherry Red Records and MVD Audio. The Ghost of Hope is The Residents' first release under their contract with Cherry Red, who (alongside MVD Audio) purchased part of Hardy Fox's stake in The Cryptic Corporation, upon Fox's retirement in 2016. The CD edition, issued in a hardback sleeve with a 32 page booklet, includes "Train vs Elephant", the B-side of the "Rushing Like a Banshee" single, as a bonus track.
The album was also released in several vinyl editions by Psychofon Records; a standard black vinyl edition and a series of limited edition variants, including a special "Die Hard Edition" of one hundred copies. This edition featured the album spread across two transparent/red single-sided vinyl LPs, with "Train vs Elephant" included as a separate, glow in the dark, single-sided 7" vinyl single (which was later issued separately in extremely limited numbers).
===Exploratorium performance and international tour===
A week after the release of The Ghost of Hope, on March 30th 2017, The Residents made a live appearance promoting the album at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The show, originally promoted as a live listening party for the album with The Residents in attendance,"Ghost of Hope album premiere", The Residents' News Machine, February 3rd 2017 ultimately proved to be a unique live band arrangement of the album, around one hour in duration."Listening Party Becomes... a Performance?!", The Residents' News Machine, March 31st 2017
The album was also promoted with the launch of The Residents' international tour In Between Dreams, in which the group debuted a new four person line-up dubbed "The REAL Residents". The tour had begun with a six-show residency in Tokyo in the days after the release of The Ghost of Hope, and continued with a European leg in October and a US leg in April and May 2018, before concluding in early 2019 with a second run of shows in Europe.
===Reissues===
To date, The Ghost of Hope has been reissued twice by Psychofon Records, both times in limited, colored vinyl editions: the first in 2018 in a limited edition of 100 hand numbered copies on red/white split vinyl, and the second in 2019 in a similar limited edition, this time on red/black split vinyl.
As of April 2024, the standard CD and vinyl editions of The Ghost of Hope are both out of print.
== Reception ==
=== Contemporary ===
Perhaps reflecting its status as the first major studio album by The Residents since The Bunny Boy nine years earlier, The Ghost of Hope was warmly received by music critics at the time of its release. Reviewing an advance copy of the album in February 2017 for Louder Than War, Ian Canty claimed that the "enthralling and entertaining" album could not be reviewed in the same way as "a normal LP", observing that the album's music "for the most part takes a back seat to reportage" and claiming that listeners are "better off approaching it as one would an audio book of short stories".Ian Canty, "The Residents - The Ghost of Hope album review", Louder Than War, February 25th 2017
Awarding the album four out of five stars for Classic Rock, journalist David Stubbs described The Ghost of Hope as "moving yet strangely exhilarating", and called it "a tribute to the reckless optimism of humanity in its ongoing technological aspirations".David Stubbs, "The Residents - The Ghost of Hope album review", Classic Rock, March 12th 2017 In his review for All About The Rock, John Deaux described the album's music as "sublime", singling out "The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918" as "a phenomenal piece of storytelling".John Deaux, "The Residents - The Ghost of Hope", All About The Rock, March 8th 2017
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Sean Westergaard recognized The Ghost of Hope as "another new starting place for The Residents", noting that despite the absence of founding Resident Charles Bobuck, "it's a Residents album through and through, with all the atmosphere and Residential perspective one could ask for." Cameron Piko of Echoes and Dust said in May 2017 that The Ghost of Hope "feels like a transitional album", and praised its production, calling it "one of the best sounding Residents records since the Mute years", while also noting that it was "not without flaws".Cameron Piko, "The Ghost of Hope by The Residents", Echoes and Dust, May 3rd 2017
Former Cryptic Hardy Fox promoted the release of The Ghost of Hope in his Hacienda Bridge email newsletter, saying "I think it is nicely done, professional. I like the album," while also acknowledging that "not very much" of his work remained in the final product.Hardy Fox, "The Residents' THE GHOST OF HOPE", Hacienda Bridge no. 12, March 15th 2017
=== Retrospective ===
As of April 2024, The Ghost of Hope has a user rating of 4.5 on Discogs, 4/5 on AllMusic,The Ghost of Hope at AllMusic and 3.1/5 on Rate Your Music.The Ghost of Hope at Rate Your Music 
==Legacy==
===Hardy Fox's Nachtzug ===
In October 2017, some months after the release of The Ghost of Hope, Hardy Fox permanently retired the persona of Charles Bobuck, and publicly revealed himself to have been one of the founding members of The Residents.Hardy Fox, "The Stone", Hacienda Bridge no. 25, October 1st 2017 This revelation was followed in February 2018 with the release of a self-titled album, for the first time under Fox's birth name. 
Around this time, Fox was asked by Walter Robotka of Austrian label Klanggalerie to compile an album of his sketches for The Ghost of Hope for a planned instalment in the TOOK series of limited edition CDs. Becoming excited by the unfinished sketches, and having some free time in advance of an upcoming heart surgery,"Leaving The Residents & New Paths", Musique Machine, May 16th 2018 Fox set to work further developing the demos, creating a new suite of music titled Nachtzug, inspired by a train journey Fox had taken from Vienna to Zurich towards the end of his time with The Residents.
Nachtzug was released on CD on May 29th 2018 by Klanggalerie; it became Fox's penultimate solo release prior to his death from brain cancer on October 30th that year.
== Track listing==
All tracks composed by The Residents.
===Standard vinyl edition (2017) ===
====Side A====
#Horrors of the Night (7:25)
#The Crash at Crush (6:33)
#Death Harvest (7:23)
==== Side B====
#Shroud of Flames (5:43)
#The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 (7:03)
#Killed at a Crossing (9:01)
===CD edition (2017)===
#Horrors of the Night (7:25)
#The Crash at Crush (6:33)
#Death Harvest (7:23)
# Shroud of Flames (5:43)
#The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 (7:03)
#Train vs Elephant (4:07)
#Killed at a Crossing (9:01)
===Special vinyl edition (2017)===
====Side A====
#Horrors of the Night (7:25)
#The Crash at Crush (6:33)
#Death Harvest (7:23)
====Side B ====
#Shroud of Flames (5:43)
#The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 (7:03)
#Killed at a Crossing (9:01)
====Train Vs. Elephant 7" single====
#Train vs Elephant (4:07)
== Credits==
===Original release (2017) ===
*Music by The Residents
*Produced by Eric Drew Feldman and The Residents
*Mixed by Gabriel Shepard and Eric Drew Feldman
*Vocals by Carla Fabrizio, Laurie Hall, Peter Whitehead and Isabelle Barbier
*Guitar by Nolan Cook
*Additional Instruments and Computers by Eric Drew Feldman
*Cover Art by Poor Know Graphics
==See also==
*Death by Train
*"Rushing Like A Banshee"
*"Train Vs. Elephant"
*The Ghost of Hope (live performance)
*Nachtzug
*Night Train to Nowhere!
==Buy Or Die!==
===Listen online===
*The Ghost of Hope on Spotify
*The Ghost of Hope on Apple Music
==External links and references==
*The Ghost of Hope at The Residents Historical
*The Ghost of Hope at Cherry Red Records (archived October 27th 2021 via archive.org)
*The Ghost of Hope at Discogs
*The Ghost of Hope at Wikipedia
Category:Albums
Category:The Ghost of Hope
Category:Nachtzug