Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We look back upon our life and see regrets, the misspoke words, the decision not fully endorsed, the anger, the kick of shame; these moments find ways to hang around us, even in the most blameless life, regrets turn into spectres, into phantasms that stay in our vision, taunting us, reminding us that we once created havoc, once we built a wall of mayhem for others to knock down.

To stand before a crowd and admit, ‘Yes, I have Ghosts‘, in the modern age is no longer an act of defiance, but of conciliation, an admittance that our lives have come to mean so much more than being considered a maverick, we have a responsibility to care for ourselves, to embrace the ghosts and heal the wounds.

David Gilmour’s first new song in five years, ‘Yes, I Have Ghosts‘ is one of softness, a gentle soul ruminating perhaps on his time on Earth but one that also captures the spirit of acceptance of the future, the moment we ignore at our peril when we continue to fight the ghosts that plague us, that we continue to fight.

Inspired by his wife’s new novel, A Theatre For Dreamers, David Gilmour’s song features his daughter Romany playing an exquisite backing to her father’s guitar, the harp and her voice enticing the melody to keep just on the right side of melancholy and desire, and it is in the human need for theatre, to pull back the curtain and reveal all for the audience, to sacrifice your own pain and possible directions, that makes the ghosts less tangible, sated by what you have given up in return for sanity, for freedom.

In a world that rightly belongs to the young and the opportunities they will forge, there is still a place for the once and future heroes to stand tall and bring back their own special beauty to the spotlight, to the arena and for us all to help them confront their ghosts.

‘Yes, I Have Ghosts‘ is a beautiful song, heartache and groove in one abiding search for a truth of our age.

Ian D. Hall