Everyone’s a Ghost by Pantomime Horse: Review

by admin February 18, 2026

February 18, 2026

Everyone’s a Ghost by Pantomime Horse: Review

Pantomime Horse makes “Everyone’s a Ghost” hit different from everything they have done so far. It’s their sixth single, and it leans into a darker corner of their 60s/80s DNA, with the sharp pop brains of XTC, the storytelling wink of The Kinks, and that indie shimmer you’d file near The Chills, while carrying a real-life weight that you can’t just shrug off.

Singer Rob Silber wrote it from his wife Karen’s perspective after she lost her eyesight in 2022 due to severe, undiagnosed diabetic retinopathy, and you can feel the song constantly see-sawing, from tragedy to survival, independence to dependence, resignation to grit-your-teeth resilience. In her world, “everything’s invisible, everyone’s a ghost,” and the lyric makes that line feel less like poetry and more like a daily fact.

Musically, it opens with a hypnotic, refraining guitar riff, with one of those loops quietly tightening the screws, while shaking percussion and steady, intimidating drums set a haunted march. Rob’s vocal sits high and controlled, delivered slowly, almost carefully, as if each line is being tested for balance. The first plea lands like a hand reaching out in the dark. He sings, “Be a star and guide me / Every step, A to B / I’d be lost without you.”

Then the track starts to build its little storm. Gritty electric guitar revs harder, the drums keep stalking forward, and just when it feels too heavy, the arrangement catches light—shimmering keyboard notes, cymbals splashing—like memory flashing bright for a second. It mirrors the lyrics’ domestic snapshots, with kitchen-sink beginnings, karaoke “killing ‘Zombies’,” feeding birds on Sunday, shaving legs, “taking chances,” putting on a dress where “nothing matches.” Ordinary life turns into an obstacle course, and the song never lets you forget the effort it takes to keep moving.

The recurring question, “Is Carrie OK?” is a nervous tick you can’t stop repeating. Mastered by James Perrett (JRP Music Services), “Everyone’s a Ghost” is a jangly, haunted pop song that manages to be intimate, unsettling, and weirdly uplifting all at once. Check out the music video (shot in Spain and the UK) on YouTube.