Though Mark Gardener’s name may not be familiar to many music fans, the moniker of his former band, Ride, certainly will be. Ride helped launch the “shoegazer” sound of the ’90s and, nearly 10 years after Ride’s demise, Gardener has finally delivered his solo debut. Although there’s nothing truly shoegazer-ish about the gentle, jangly pop on “These Beautiful Ghosts,” the blend of Gardener’s breathy voice and drifting-feather melodies should delight Ride fans. Songs like “Snow in Mexico” and “Getting Out of Your Own Way” layer intertwining 12-string guitar lines and airy, autumnal vocal melodies over quietly propulsive grooves to beautiful effect. Where Gardener once used high-tech electric axes to emit a hypnotic swirl of sound, he now uses lush vocal harmonies and overdubbed steel strings to create an unplugged variant of the same vibe, producing fetching acoustic tunes like “Rhapsody.”
