“Belis - Love Like Ghosts”
“Love Like Ghosts” by Belis is a somber, melodious cover of Lord Huron’s original song with the same name from their 2015 album Strange Trails. Belis’ cover was released on October 29th, 2021, and it runs for 2 minutes and 59 seconds. The beautiful Alternative track paints a scene in my mind of Belis sitting at a dimly-lit gothic window at the darkest hour of the night in front of a large, gothic window in an empty Victorian mansion on a mountain in the hills, looking onto a vast, foggy scape of hills with warm lights.
The song creates this enormous feeling of sorrow and occupies lots of space, while simultaneously making you feel isolated and alone. This is a result of the grand piano score, which creates this sense of space. Actually, as I was writing this, someone played a cover of “Atlas” by Coldplay in the room I was in on a grand piano and I got that same sense of space from it as I was describing with the piano on this song. Belis’ stellar, heartful vocals add this element of isolation in a wonderful way. This creates a very simple, yet full soundscape with the piano, as they complement each other very nicely; the piano is low and deep, while the vocals are high and light.
Additionally, the lyrics for this song are just amazing. The narrative that Lord Huron created is haunting, sincere, and relatable. Through this simple simile, they were able to encapsulate the essence of love. It is true, love is something that is very rare to the point where it is sometimes hard to tell if it exists or not. Yet, once found, it becomes a spiritual entity that only exists in the eyes of its believers, and that can live for as long as it wants to. With Lorn Huron’s emotive lyrics, Jon Buice’s powerful piano, and Belis’ expressive vocals, “Love Like Ghosts” is a phenomenal song that is undoubtedly worth your time to listen to.
