Making Peace With The Past Sounds Like “Ghosts and Logic” by Eli Wise

Ghosts and Logic don’t exactly sound like they belong in the same sentence, yet for Eli Wise, this might just be the most accurate way to describe all the contradictions that come with the past and the present.

There’s a lot of life packed into the nearly decade-long gap between Eli Wise’s earlier days as a musician and Ghosts and Logic. The Bay Area-based songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist spent those years focusing on his education career and raising two children.

Ghosts and Logic reflects that journey, asking us to let go of the past and embrace what comes next.

Everyone Goes Through Something Like This, But That Doesn’t Help is a hell of a title for an opening track, especially one about getting older. Yes, this is basically a soundtrack for adulthood: losing words, files, track of time, and everything that once seemed easy to hold onto. But knowing you’re not the only one doesn’t make any of it suck less. The track has this light, carefree feel, especially in the guitar, yet the closer you lean in, the more you’ll catch the weight hiding underneath.

Out in the Cold follows with folk textures, which surprisingly made its political bite warm on the surface. The lyrics are blunt, and there’s a particular kind of anger running from Wise’s words—the old system gets torn down, a new council promises change, and yet somehow nothing really changes for the people standing outside it. It’s that contrast between the earthy folk textures and underlying tension that makes the track stick.

I Had to Choose ends the EP, and it kinda feels like closure, the one you write after finally admitting that something you once loved no longer feels like yours. Just like the opening track, there’s a lighthearted, playful looseness to the ways its sound comes together. Yet there’s something bittersweet about it, like making peace with a decision you know you had to make.

There’s a lot going on in Ghosts and Logic, but it never sounds like it’s trying too hard to say it all at once. The guitars stay loose, the vocals stay crisp, and it’s as if Paul Simon, Amanda Palmer, and The Shins slipped into the studio with Wise playing.

But what truly makes the record feel complete is his songwriting. He can take something as ordinary as losing a file, questioning your choices, or realizing you’ve changed and turn it into something worth sitting with. And it’s probably what makes Ghosts and Logic so likeable. You’ll get music with a little humor, a little heart, and a few existential questions to keep things interesting.