In reading through the lyrics of The Haunted Man in the liner notes, I noticed that there are a lot of exclamation points. “Thank god I’m alive!” “Let the perfume drip, let it rise!” “I’m in bloom! Oh yeah!” “Baby throw your head back! Let your hair down!” “And we’re only but a second away!” “And the headiness howls, rise and rise!” In a way, this sums up the album.
Some of Khan’s earlier records (also amazing) are more dreamy, goth, fanciful than this one. The Haunted Man feels more real and earthy: nature lurks in most of the songs, sex in others, little bits of the haunted past here and there, the beats pulse and thrive, and above all, it feels alive. That’s her exclamation here, song after song. This is what it feels like to be alive.
The title implies some sort of haunted feeling, the album cover makes that explicit: the weight of someone else on your shoulders. But instead of feeling the burden, it makes her exclaim.