Is it coincidence then, this was the first album I picked up in the morning? I hardly think so, the Paper Chase seem to be these night time demons poisoning my dreams with their crooked words and pouring fear into my heart.
Now You Are One Of Us opens with a stuttering, scrambled message, a sense of panic and dread play in the backdrop, while a piano and string melody grab the froe. The music of the first track is what you might imagine, if you were ever to watch a vampire slowly creep down a spiral staircase.
Eerie backing vocals which sound as though they were performed by a pained ghostly choir accompany strained vocals over inconsistent but powerful drums, an ethereal tinkling piano and the sawing screech of guitars, cellos and violins, but the whole thing heard through a thick cobweb.
There also seems to be an urgency to the lyrics, as if somehow salvation may be obtained if singer/songwriter/producer John Congleton can get his words to your ears.
The album isn’t so much made up of 15 individual songs, it sounds more like a walking tour of a 15-room haunted house, each track connected by musty, dark hallways, and secret doors; floorboard creaks, gusts of wind and strange voices interspersed throughout create a winding soundtrack as you grope your way in the dark from the basement to the attic.
