Spirit Phone is the seventh album by Lemon Demon, a musical project started by American musician Neil Cicierega. The album was released digitally through Bandcamp on February 29, 2016, and it was his first complete album in eight years. All songs were written, played, and recorded by Neil Cicierega.

The album's cover art was created by Cicierega's wife, comic book artist Ming Doyle. The song "Sweet Bod" includes a guitar solo by Dave Kitsberg, a member of the rock band Time Crash. The album received mostly positive reviews and was quite successful. The song "Touch-Tone Telephone" became Lemon Demon's most streamed track, with over 80 million plays on Spotify. On July 10, 2018, independent label Needlejuice Records announced the release of vinyl, CD, and cassette versions of Spirit Phone.

History

After the release of Lemon Demon's 2008 album View-Monster, Cicierega started working on the next Lemon Demon album, which was released eight years later as Spirit Phone. In July 2009, a song titled "Eighth Wonder," which is about a mysterious creature named Gef, was released as an MP3 download on Lemon Demon's website. In November 2009, Cicierega released a music video for the same song. An early version of a song called "Ivanushka," created during this time, was later changed into the Spirit Phone track "Touch-Tone Telephone."

In April 2012, a live backing video for an early version of the song "Reaganomics" was posted on Cicierega's second YouTube channel. The video was made using clips from Ronald Reagan's final film role in The Killers. The song "Reaganomics" was performed live at the anime convention Youmacon 2012, along with early versions of "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It," "Ancient Aliens," and "Cabinet Man." In July 2012, Cicierega created two unused opening themes for the animated show Gravity Falls. Parts of these themes later became bonus tracks on the Spirit Phone album, including "Gravitron" and "Moon's Request," the latter being a remix of the original theme.

In October 2014, the song "When He Died" was released on Patreon. The album was made available digitally on February 29, 2016. A remastered version of the album was released in physical formats, including vinyl, CD, and cassette, in October 2018 by Needlejuice Records. Additional versions of the album were released on 8-track and minidisc formats in 2019 and 2020.

Reception

Mashable added "Touch-Tone Telephone" and "Eighth Wonder" to their 2019 Halloween playlist, describing "Touch-Tone Telephone" as one of many real highlights. Cultured Vultures called the horror-themed album Spirit Phone one of the wildest pop albums of the year. Spirit Phone became the top-selling album on Bandcamp during its first week of release.

The song "Cabinet Man," which tells the story of a man who transforms into a half-human arcade machine, later inspired the indie game Neon Nemesis, which was shown at the 2019 Alt.Ctrl.GDC Exhibition. In the game, up to four players race against a fifth player, the "nemesis," who controls the racers' characters from inside the game cabinet without them seeing. American animator Aimkid created fan-made music videos for "Cabinet Man," "Lifetime Achievement Award," and "Soft Fuzzy Man," releasing the last video in September 2020 and increasing the song's popularity.

Track listing

All of the tracks on the album were written by Neil Cicierega. The album includes 13 bonus tracks, which include demos, songs that were removed from the final version, and other additional music. The following list shows the track order for the deluxe bonus CD. On digital platforms, these bonus tracks are listed in alphabetical order and are labeled "(Bonus Track)" in the title. The track "Sweet Bod (Demo)" is named only "Sweet Bod" on digital services.

The vinyl and cassette versions of the album include bonus tracks titled "Crisis Actors," "Redesign Your Logo," "Pizza Heroes," "You're at the Party," and "Angry People." Starting with 2022 releases, the vinyl and cassette versions also include the bonus track "Kubrick and the Beast." All physical copies of the album, except for the CD, come with a download card for the full album and include commentary by Cicierega. The CD version already includes the full album and commentary.