Hail The Ghost – Digress (2026)
“Life can be hard, some days you write songs about it” – truer words were never spoken, and Hail The Ghost embrace life’s challenges with sonic solace. Last month, we were introduced to the Irish foursome with their single, ‘Little Lungs’. A song exploring the complexities of abandonment, isolation, and anger, ‘Little Lungs’ crawls beneath your skin in its brooding intricacy. Today, we continue our Hail The Ghost journey with a song as intense and complex.
Retaining the somewhat skin-chilling sensation of ‘Little Lungs’, new single ‘Digress’ once again rips the band-aid off delicate themes, unpicks humanity’s vulnerability, and keeps you listening, experiencing every heartfelt emotion. This time, however, the lads take it a step further, navigating themes of hopelessness and self-worth through three song sections; each as powerful and breath-taking, culminating in a symphony that is distinctive in each wave and a harmonious reach across an emotional soundscape.
Recorded and produced by Martin Queen at JAM Studios, Kells, Meath, ‘Digress’ is slightly darker than previous material, taking listeners further into the intricacies of raw human emotion. Not necessarily entirely by the themes, but rather by the melody – it’s ambient textures and a slow ride across an alternative rock sphere, bound and veiled by tragedy and desperation, that somehow acts as an outlet for our fragility and, simultaneously, keeps the sad so you don’t feel lost.
Slower, softer, and gentler in its tune, ‘Digress’ is led by Ian Corr’s piano with Martin Queen’s bass keeping a steady beat. Unlike the crash of Kieran O’Reilly’s drums and soar of Eamon Young’s guitar in ‘Little Lungs’, each element weaves together, melding into a sonic haze atop a dark, grungy river. The off-kilter lilt of O’Reilly’s rich baritone pins a note of uncertainty and obscurity, acting like that little beastie following at a distance, but you know it’s there.
I enjoy the journey of ‘Digress’ from its piano-driven opening to a heavier slice of alternative rock, and then the smooth leading out; however, it is the final moment that leaves you blinking your eyes and holding your breath. O’Reilly whispers the intimate line, “I digress, it’s time to sleep, don’t wait”, without any instrumentation to close everything off with profound weightiness.
The first of several songs to be released this year, I am eager to hear more from Hail The Ghost.
Find out more about Hail The Ghost on their Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Soundcloud and Spotify.
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