''Seen a Ghost'' is an album by the American
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
Honeydogs, released in 1997. It was the band's first album for a major label.
The band supported the album by opening for
INXS
INXS (a phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farris ...
on a North American tour.
Production
Recorded at
Pachyderm Studios, the album was produced by Tom Herbers and the band, and mixed by
Nick DiDia.
Al Kooper
Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...
contributed
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...
.
Critical reception
''
Stereo Review
''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review'' ...
'' called the album "this decade's freshest-sounding blast of folk-rock neoclassicism." The ''
Lincoln Journal Star
The ''Lincoln Journal Star'' is an American daily newspaper that serves Lincoln, Nebraska, the state capital and home of the University of Nebraska. It is the most widely read newspaper in Lincoln and has the second-largest circulation in ...
'' wrote that "this is a pure-pop band, one that cheerfully raids country, rock, r&b and psychedelia."
[ Werner Trieschmann, of the '']Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties.
By virtue of one of ...
'', considered the band one of the first of an inevitable wave of copies of the Wallflowers
The Wallflowers is an American rock solo project of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jakob Dylan. The Wallflowers were originally a roots rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Dylan and guitarist Tobi Miller. The band ...
, writing that "this one won't be the worst, I can guarantee, but that's not an endorsement either."
''The Palm Beach Post
''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast. On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and ''The Palm Beach Daily News'' ...
'' deemed Honeydogs "a real rock band," writing that "no frills guitars combine with the gentle purr of a Wurlitzer or the drone of a fiddle for extra flavor." The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently ...
'' listed ''Seen a Ghost'' as the fifth best album of 1997, writing that it "sidles up to an easygoing collection of pop songs and country rockers all of them unassuming, irony-free and irresistible." The '' St. Paul Pioneer Press'' opined: "Refusing to give up on the heartland strains that have fueled the group for so long, the Honeydogs are more secure in its abilities."[
]AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
called the album "a charming collection of Beatlesque pop, demonstrating the group's knack for bright, catchy melodies and ringing guitars."
Track listing
References
{{Authority control
1997 albums
Mercury Records albums