Ghost Fan Club emerged as a space for Florida‘s Tyler Costolo to continue working on quieter, more subdued sounds as his main project Two Meters pushed further into the heavier end of the spectrum. A vehicle to explore the subtler manifestations of mental health struggles. As such, debut release Passing Through stood in contrast to the increasingly metal-adjacent Two Meters style, living up to its spectral title in both imagery and sound. As we wrote of the album:
With a soft and cautious style, the [release] tiptoes forward with something between bummed out slacker stillness and a kind of weighted trepidation, as sad and scared and bored as any spirit unable to pass on. But the ghost here is still very much living, the life slipping past before his eyes very much his own. The goal is not the bright afterlife but a far duller paradise—a sense of contentment, comfort in one’s own skin. The feeling that, yes, you really are living, right here and right now.
Last month saw Ghost Fan Club return with brand new single that continues these ideas. As the title suggests, ‘Crutch’ deals with the limbo of coping mechanisms, the thoughts and actions imposed to get one through the day that might also prove a hindrance in conquering the real problem. Costolo captures this with a slow and reluctant style, following the likes of Told Slant in the way the delivery feels at once rhetorical and not. “Why am I like this?” the lyrics asks, not expecting an answer but hoping for one all the same.
Everything is scary
I don’t want to move on
What does the end mean
Am I too far goneWhy am I like this
Inside these walls
I’ll stay safe
The crutch that holds me up