Ghosty

Make something of yourself, or hit the snooze button. That was the directive in the title of Ghosty's first album, 2005's Grow Up or Sleep In. Even though Grow Up didn't make the Kansas City band famous, the new LP Answers proves that Ghosty is grown up, and it does not sleep in — or, for that matter, sleep much at all. Produced in large part by Paul Malinowski (who also did Riddle of Steel's 1985), Answers captures Ghosty's live sound; the album maintains an intimate, spontaneous feel, its songs sounding fresh despite the fact that the band has been working on them for so long. Opener "Dumbo Wins Again" starts sparsely, a tumbling drum pattern interlocking with a quirky guitar chord, over which vocalist Andrew Connor unloads the complaints of a hypothetical Kansas Citian who's tired of his surroundings: "Well I'd like nothing more than to leave your sad monuments and dumb fountains behind."