Beneath This Burning Shoreline

In March 2008, singer-songwriter Simon Aldred announced through a MySpace blog posting that the band were at the writing stage for the second album and had seven songs written, which had been distilled from over 50 different tunes. The bulk of the album was written across Europe, namely Berlin and Rome. The band recorded the album between January and December 2009 in Frank Bough Sound III, a converted barn in Cheshire, owned by friends and labelmates Doves.[4][5][6]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[7]
BBC	positive[8]
The Guardian	[9]
The Independent	[10]
MusicOMH	[11]
Q	[12]

Beneath This Burning Shoreline was released to positive reviews, garnering 4 out of 5 star reviews from major publications such as Q,[12] The Guardian,[9] The Independent,[10] and The Times.[13] The Guardian summarised that "Cherry Ghost are good at purveying glimpses of seedy lives... and exceptionally good arrangers of strings, guitar and thrumming synths into gorgeous symphonic pop."[9] The Independent noted that, "The prevailing tone throughout is akin to that chastened postwar mood captured by Carol Reed in The Third Man; certainly, Aldred's characters would not be out of place gazing down upon ant-people from a ferris wheel, or fleeing through sewers."[10] Allmusic reviewer Jon O'Brien finalised that the album "furthers Aldred's reputation as one of the U.K.'s most interesting storytellers."[7]

All tracks are written by Simon Aldred (lyrics) and Cherry Ghost (music).

Cherry Ghost

• Simon Aldred – vocals, guitars
• Jim Rhodes – guitar, banjo, Echoplex, melodica
• Ben Parsons – keyboards, piano, synthesizer, dulcimer, trumpet
• Phill Anderson – bass, synthesizer
• Grenville Harrop – drums, percussion

Personnel

• Additional synths by Dan Austin.
• Brass and string arrangements by Ben Parsons.
• Strings by Belinda Hammond, Sarah Fletcher, Rick Evans, Tim Smedley, Thea Spiers, and Simon Denton.
• Brass by Lucy Pankhurst, Alan Tokeley, Matthew Ball, and Tim Page.

Production

• Produced by Dan Austin and Cherry Ghost.
• Engineered by Dan Austin; recorded at The Barn.
• Mixed by Dan Austin at Moles Recording Studio; assisted by Nick Joplin.
• Mastered by Miles Showell at Metropolis.
• Photography by Emir Ozsahin.
• Sleeve art by Luke Insect.