REVIEW: "Oh My Goth" by Ghost Town

Photo credit: Ghost Town

Ghost Town's new single, "Oh My Goth" is a crime against music. Released on Oct. 23 as the second of two comeback singles, it starts out with cringeworthy lyrics: Oh my goth you're a baddie/kill me I'll be happy/Smile while you slash me. It's not the greatest introduction but then it goes into a simple guitar line. I love a good guitar line so I was willing to give it a chance.

 Ghost Town's trademark dubstep rock kicks in at about 40 seconds and initially, I was excited about that. I've always loved their sound. Then the lyrics continued. They are the worst I've heard in years. This is coming from someone who's heard Rebecca Black's "Friday" many times. It doesn't have the "fun fun fun" of "Friday". 

Instead, it's full of stereotypes that goths have been trying to shed for years. For example, take these lines: I like your black lips, silver rings, cemetery everything/caffeine/nicotine/hope you cast a spell on me. Then they go into how they might need an exorcism and I actually rolled my eyes. There's also the cringeworthy lines: Everybody's scared of you and that's kinda hot...settle down in Hell and have a nice family. I don't know who thought this was a good idea.

From a band that used to be quite original (see "Skeleton", "Party in the Graveyard" and "Under Wraps"), this was a disappointing entry into their collection of songs. I thought there was no way it could continue to be that bad, so I kept listening. Spoiler alert: it was that bad. It ends with the same awful line: Settle down in Hell and have a nice family. They lean into stereotypes to a cheesy and almost offensive degree, especially with the title of the song.

There's nothing unique about “Oh My Goth” and it left me wondering what happened to Ghost Town. Maybe they should have stayed gone and ended on a high note.