Artist – Only Child
Album – Holy Ghosts
Released – 14th March 2025
Reviewer – Helen Maw, Liverpool Acoustic
With their long-awaited fifth album, Holy Ghosts, Liverpool’s Only Child once again proves
that emotional resonance and lyrical depth remain at the heart of their distinctive sound. Led
by songwriter and frontman Alan O’Hare, the band has carved a reputation over more than a
decade for music that doesn’t merely tug at the heartstrings—it yanks them with urgency,
compassion, and clarity.
Produced by Jon Lawton at Liverpool’s Crosstown Studios, Holy Ghosts continues Only
Child’s legacy of richly textured storytelling, anchored by acoustic guitars, warm violin lines,
saxophones and a voice that carries both experience and empathy. While the album’s title
nods to the supernatural, the record is firmly grounded in the realities of grief, memory, and
human connection, handled here with disarming sincerity.
The Visit, a standout track penned by O’Hare, encapsulates the album’s duality: a haunting
ballad that blends historical weight with raw personal reflection. It’s a song that lingers, not
just for its lyrical potency, but for its arrangement too, featuring a warming full band
sound—a hallmark of the album as a whole. Furthermore, Dock Road is another highlight.
With echoes of Springsteen, O’Hare paints a picture with his music that makes you feel like
you are on those streets yourself, feeling the world around you and living through every lyric
and note.
Holy Ghosts is not just a continuation of Only Child’s discography, but a deepening of it.
There is a quiet confidence in the songwriting, a matured perspective that embraces
vulnerability with just the right amount of sentimentality.
Following the critical acclaim of their previous releases, Only Child have delivered a record
that feels both timely and timeless. Holy Ghosts is an album that resonates long after its final
note—a testament to the enduring power of storytelling in song.
Holy Ghosts is now available to stream and purchase from Only Child’s Bandcamp.
Helen Maw
Review © 2025 Helen Maw, Liverpool Acoustic