After the successful release of his EP ‘for what it’s worth’ in 2023, Haunted Images is back with his self title debut album!
Songwriter and producer David O’Farrell-McGeary works under the guise of Haunted Images to create his ethereal and whimsical alt-rock shoegaze sound. Throughout the whole album, he expresses the theme of forgiveness, and uses his own personal, and sometimes traumatic, experiences to do so. David revealed the album is about ‘forgiveness within yourself and forgiveness of the people around you’. It can also resonate with many people, as it delves into the loss and lack of motivation to go on in life that many suffer with throughout their lives. David wrote a lot of the album alone at night, and every song on it is filled with the raw honesty that can only be found during these quieter hours.
It’s a deeply introspective album where I dissect myself at every song and put many personal and traumatic experiences under a musical microscope’
– David speaking about ‘I forgive you’
‘I forgive you’ opens the album beautifully with its sharp guitar riffs and aching lyrics. It cuts straight through the silence to the yearning felt in the vocals, and the raw emotion is so thought provoking, it stops you in your tracks. The blend of the pining vocals and the rushing instrumentals forms the perfect representation of how it feels to forgive the actions of another, even if it’s too late for things to change. Starting ‘haunted images’ with a track like ‘I forgive you’ introduces the reoccurring themes of the album, and the honesty of it really proves how open and deep cutting the following songs would be. In my opinion, it’s the most beautiful track on the whole album.
The fourth track of ‘haunted images’ is ‘Stay awake’ and although the instrumentation doesn’t sound that dissimilar to many alt-rock tracks, the hard hitting lyrics really put a unique twist on it. In this song, David expresses the desperate situation of wanting to sleep forever, and never wake up. Unfortunately many people feel this way at times, and to create such deep lyrics, David used his own experiences of pleading others to ‘stay awake tonight’. The feeling of someone else’s life weighing on your shoulders can’t be described, yet ‘stay awake’ almost perfectly encapsulates this emotion. This hard hitting track really is one of the most honest and open songs of the whole album.
As the closing track, ‘heavenlevel7’ always had the expectation of ending the album in the most fitting way, and it certainly does that. Being the oldest song written, it was always meant to be the closer and like the end chapter of a book, it brings the whole record together in one song, with forgiveness yet again shining through the track. The entire song feels very apt for the ending of a film, as the camera pans across the landscape and you sit there in awe at the screen. ‘heavenlevel7’ really provides the backdrop to life, and the lyrics of the track mirror this; “They’re reflective and inquisitive”.
”They’re reflective and inquisitive, exploring the ideas of free will, identity and being unaware of your role within the world. Like the majority of my songs, it explores disassociation and how it affects my day to day”.
– David on ‘heavenlevel7’
The theme of the record is heard through every track, yet no two are the same. Each song has its own unique individuality yet putting them together creates such a beautiful album. The ethereality and whimsicality blend gorgeously with the fuzzy guitar riffs and synth sounds, and ‘haunted images’ is a must listen to album. It’s so easy to get lost in the music and with such relatability in the lyrics, there’s no reason you shouldn’t. Haunted Images are becoming a growing voice in Irish music, and I can’t wait to hear what he can release next to beat this extraordinary debut album!
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