Review: Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys – Where's Your Ghost

The talent of Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys is that their music sounds like more than just a reach to a past we have imagined ass younguns, but their idea of choice was to get to the parts that were twisted, desolate and nearly unbearable. In Walter Sickert’s world, someone is getting shanked, someone is drinking too damn much, and pirate ships reek of dead men who swore to be living legends, but it all sounds so maddeningly beautiful. “Where’s Your Ghost” isn’t exempt from the madness as Sickert tells a story in the fewest words possible about the sinking of a ship, and the disappearance of a God. Multiple times, he asks, “where’s your ghost when you need her most” before revealing in an orchestrated climax that all is forsaken during a sinking ship. The charm of this song is that it doesn’t have to remain about that. A sinking ship could mean death, depression, a moment that you can’t or will have the most trouble bouncing back from, where not a single eulogy will be sang, all would be lost, but the end never sounded so satisfying en route.