While Pale Green Ghosts sounds like an analysis of London's recent Fashion Week, in actual fact it's something infinitely sexier. John Grant returns after his solo debut Queen of Denmark, an album more universally exalted than any Taylor Swift / goat mash-up video.
And ghosts, regardless of colour, are something Grant is all too familiar with. Queen of Denmark was essentially a moving treatise on coming out and, given Grant's recent public acknowledgement of his HIV-positive status, you'd be forgiven for expecting another iteration of that.
But Pale Green Ghosts is spikier, less reticent, and brazenly owns all its issues. The mesmerising title track (below) heralds the electronic-blues tone of the rest of the album; Grant himself admits that the track is about the boldness and self-confidence that lie in escape.
Black Belt pulses with Grant's caustic barbs, and Sensitive New Age Guy carries the same dance-floor heft as any track by Robyn. Meanwhile, on GMF, he exclaims "I am the greatest motherfucker that you're ever gonna meet." With an album as exceptional as this, it's hard to disagree.