Modern Baseball's third album, Holy Ghost comes from a sad beginning and evolves into a time capsule of growing up. 11 songs split are (almost) evenly between the writing duties of vocalists Jacob Ewald and Brendan Lukens based off traumatic experience that have happened to them in the past few years. What seemed like was going to be a sad and moot record, becomes an energetic album filled with catchy hooks and intriguing lyrics.

Ewald's songs begin the record and there's no better transition between the haunting sounds of "Holy Ghost" that immediately feed into the fast high pitch riff of "Wedding Singer." Already this album kicks into full gear. The rest of Ewald's side of the record is invigorating and continues the feeling of poppy melodies and haunting themes. "Note To Self" has an infectious progressive tone while "Mass" has an anxiety ridden spoken word piece that ties the short song together. The addition of bassist, Ian Farmer's vocals on this album definitely give the band a boost in sound. His deep vocals add to the haunting tones of the record.

Luken's side of the record is a lot more on the punk side. Half of Luken's lyrics were written impromptu which makes for an interesting and careful listen. It's not as easy to understand these lyrics because of Luken's nasally vocal style that sounds somewhat distorted in the mix. What results are five ingenious songs that are well polished as they are crafted. "Coding These To Lukens" might be my new favorite Modern Baseball song. The song starts off the second half of the record with a haunting bang. Songs like "Apple Cider, I Don't Mind" has a 80s vibe, which seems to be a subtle tone throughout the record.

Modern Baseball continues to show progression and maturity as they take their sound further than before. There's no need to pick sides between Ewald's songs and Lukens' songs as they both deliver catchy melodies and prolific lyrics. Holy Ghost is not only one of the strongest Modern Baseball records, it may very well be a contender for album of the year.