Love Ghost Opens the Door to Thirteen

Love Ghost is opening the door on Thirteen, and what is waiting behind it is messy and personal, but impossible to ignore.

The 13-track record was announced Friday, October 2, alongside two new songs, “Into The Woods” and “Something In The Water.” Built around a period of frontman Finnegan Bell’s life when he was expelled from school and began feeling the weight of the real world set in, Thirteen looks closely at isolation, identity, and the things that can follow you long after the moment itself has passed. The record leans into an acoustic Midwest grunge sound, giving Love Ghost a little more room to sit with the personal side of its songwriting. These first two tracks make that shift especially clear, while still sounding unmistakably like the band.

“Into The Woods” has an opening that immediately pulls you in. It is haunting and relatively stripped back, but the song knows exactly when to fill itself out. The guitar work adds beautiful layers without overwhelming the vocals, especially in the riffs and smaller instrumental moments tucked throughout the track. There is something genuinely unique about the way it all comes together. It sounds deeply personal, yet the lyrics leave enough space for anyone who has dealt with guilt, isolation, or being at odds with themselves to find something familiar in it.

There are a few lines in “Into The Woods” that stick around after the song is over. “Somewhere between home and nowhere I became what they warned me about” has a lot packed into it, and “I can wash these hands forever that won’t wash away the stains” takes that even further, with “It’s me against myself, I’m not supposed to win” packing the last punch into your memory.

The guitar deserves some credit here, too. There are little riffs and fillers throughout the song that keep the arrangement moving while still letting it breathe. Then, right at the end, everything drops into those soft runs that sound like an angel. It is a strangely beautiful way to end something that spends so much time wrestling with itself.

“Something In The Water” takes that same sense of internal struggle and puts it somewhere you can almost physically experience. The ocean sounds at the beginning immediately set the scene before Bell comes in softly with “Hold my breath beneath the surface / Hear the voices underneath.” From there, the guitar sits layered under the vocals while the beat is a steady, heavy pulse that sounds almost like a heartbeat. “I don’t wanna be here anymore” comes back quietly, and that delivery riddled with vulnerability makes it hit harder.

The ocean comes back at the end, and that is where the whole idea really clicks. Between the fading water, the steady beat, and the guitar disappearing underneath it, the song genuinely sounds like it is sinking. The use of nature sounds is such an underrated choice, but it adds a lot to the track and makes the feeling of drowning much more immediate. It gives the song enough immersion without making the production feel crowded.

Putting these two songs out as singles makes Thirteen extremely interesting right away. “Into The Woods” is full of self-doubt and the feeling of becoming someone you never expected to be, while “Something In The Water” takes that and drops it underneath the surface. Both songs have their own way of making something deeply personal feel easy to connect with. They take two completely different approaches, but both leave you sitting with the same feeling when they end.

Review by Bek Allegretti