In the months leading up to the release of Modern Baseball’s Holy Ghost, the band that had just formed five years previously found themselves touring constantly, while struggling to handle the hurdles of their own mental health, and unknowingly at the time writing the final chapter of their musical legacy. In the midst of all the muddle surrounding them, Modern Baseball was able to forge an album that confronts themes of grief, anxiety, and the turmoil of fleeting youth. With Holy Ghost a decade later serving as a snapshot into the band’s psyche in the pivotal time period leading up to their hiatus.
The emotional depth and maturity experienced throughout Holy Ghost came as a result of the rapid growth experienced after high-school friends Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald formed the group Modern Baseball at Drexel University with newfound friends Ian Farmer and Sean Huber. They would go on to release their debut album Sports only a year later in 2012, an album focused on exploring the innocent themes of young heartbreak. Their 2014 sophomore release You’re Gonna Miss It All would go on to gather praise from media outlets such as Pitchfork and Stereogum, due to the album containing more sophisticated songwriting while still maintaining a diary-like honesty with the listener. Music critic Ian Cohen stated in a review for Pitchfork, “One thing Modern Baseball do have in common with their trendpiece peers is that they’re getting attention because they’re much, much better at making music than they were two years ago.”
By the time production of Holy Ghost began in the fall of 2015, band members Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald were experiencing a personal toll on their mental health; as relentlessly touring along with the pressures of growing fame sent them to rock bottom. The inspiration behind the album’s unique split-formatting of having Brendan and Jake’s songs on separate sides was credited to OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, with this decision ultimately being able to better reflect not only their individual creative voices as musicians but also their own personal struggles and perspectives during this instrumental period in the band’s history. This more personal and emotional struggle went on to directly shape the more introspective lyrics and raw sound that defines the final chapter of Modern Baseball, with Brendan’s side consisting of a fragmented confrontation of self-doubt and Jake’s containing more cohesive storytelling namely within the title track.
While during production Holy Ghost was never intended to be a farewell record for Modern Baseball, it’s able to act as a reflection of the many struggles of the members that eventually led to the band’s hiatus. With Jake’s song “Hiding” off the album highlighting his distaste for their growing status of fame and tiredness of touring stating, “I won’t answer when they call, I guess that’s just my gift to myself,” then later confirming this suspicion while repeating the line “I am in pursuit of all things I can undo.” These emotions are later similarly felt by Brendan on the ending track “Just Another Face” with lyrics such as “I’m a waste of time and space, meandering unwanted days, I don’t know how I got here,” allowing us to hear the struggle in Brendan’s voice during this time period. It’s songs like these throughout the tracklist that are able to capture the mental strain experienced by both frontmen, making Holy Ghost, in retrospect, clear documentation of the band’s breaking point.
In the decade since the release of Holy Ghost along with the band’s hiatus first being announced, Modern Baseball’s influence has continued to shine through the music of the current generation, shaping both the sound and raw lyricism seen in local music scenes across the globe, current day bands such as Mom Jeans, Oso Oso, and Hot Mulligan have gone on to attribute their emotionally sophisticated lyricism to the influence of Modern Baseball. Even without a new release in the past ten years, Modern Baseball’s voice has continued to linger as a guide for these newer artists as they attempt their own approach at the confessional lyricism style that the band has become known for.
Although the band hasn’t shown any signs of a revival anytime in the near future, fans are able to find comfort with the influence the band spread throughout their short tenure being apparent throughout so many up and coming bands throughout multiple local scenes. Along with the honesty regarding the band’s hiatus within Modern Baseball’s final studio album Holy Ghost. Brendan Luken closed the book on Modern Baseball by sharing the sentiment with listeners on the final track of the album, “We’re proud of what is to come, and you.” showing us regardless of the band’s hiatus, they’ll still be with us the whole way.