Ghost Notes is the fifth full-length studio album by American rock band Veruca Salt, released on July 10, 2015, through El Camino Records. Produced by Brad Wood, who also produced the band's debut American Thighs, it is the first to feature the band's original lineup since their second album, Eight Arms to Hold You. Two of the songs had previously been released. "The Museum of Broken Relationships" was on the band's 2014 Record Store Day release MMXIV, and "Black and Blonde" is a new recording of a song originally recorded by Nina Gordon for her first solo album, Tonight and the Rest of My Life. The double-LP vinyl edition released by El Camino in January 2016 features a revised track listing with three additional selections.
Development
Following the band's 1997 release Eight Arms to Hold You, drummer Jim Shapiro quit. Shortly after, in 1998, Nina Gordon and bassist Steve Lack also quit, leading Louise Post to release two new Veruca Salt albums with other musicians, Resolver in 2000, and IV in 2006. Gordon told The Los Angeles Times that after seeing the reception from Mazzy Star's 2012 reunion she got the desire to make music with Post again. The two met up for the first time in 14 years and began writing music that would become Ghost Notes.
Critical reception
Ghost Notes received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 78 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 12 reviews. Writing for Consequence of Sound and rating the album a "B", Nina Corcoran claims, "Veruca Salt are still writing catchy, raging songs, but the naivety of their intent and its two-decade-old edits are miles away here." Matt Williams of Now Magazine rated the album four stars out of five and states: "Gordon and Post haven't missed a beat. In fact, they might be better than ever." The A.V. Club's Alex McCown calls Ghost Notes "a potent and affecting record, with a deep well of emotional resonance Veruca Salt never really had before."
