Hoxsey’s ‘Ghost We Keep’ understands that the most unsettling ghosts are rarely supernatural. They are memories, mistakes, places, people and versions of ourselves that somehow continue travelling with us long after we thought we had left them behind.
Across eleven tracks, the Austin artist alongside collaborator Peppermilk turn that idea into a strange travelling-carnival universe of dirt roads, worn tents, abandoned towns and half-seen figures beyond the firelight. Gothic rock, indie, punk, acoustic writing and experimental textures all drift through the album, but the storytelling is what holds everything together.
Tracks like ‘The Introduction of Sgt. Capone’, ‘A Ride With the Four Horse Men in 1888’ and ‘Corpses Ball Room’ push hard into the theatrical side of the project. They help make the record feel like a physical place, with recurring characters and eerie imagery giving it the atmosphere of an old folktale that has somehow survived into the present.
While the more immediate material adds necessary depth. ‘The Road’ and ‘Josaphina’ draw the focus back towards the human centre of the album, revealing that beneath all the skeletons, carnivals and cemetery imagery is a release concerned with loss, identity and the emotional residue of time.
It’s a balance that keeps ‘Ghost We Keep’ from becoming a novelty Halloween album. Hoxsey clearly enjoys the macabre scenery, but the darkness serves a larger purpose. The circus becomes a metaphorical space where memory can be exaggerated, distorted and turned into character.
Ambitious, eccentric and full of vivid imagery, ‘Ghost We Keep’ succeeds because its ghosts feel personal. Hoxsey has created a record where theatrical horror and genuine nostalgia coexist, making the past feel both impossible to escape and strangely inviting to revisit.
