LOVING this. "Sensitive New Age Guy" aside, and I can accept that I'm not meant to love that.
― Tim F, Saturday, 4 May 2013 13:33 (ten years ago) link
When Grant is being particularly tough on himself he uses language that you can tell someone else has used against him, as if every insult is still embedded in him like shrapnel.
This is a ridiculously great line.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 4 May 2013 15:16 (ten years ago) link
I can sort of accept Sensitive New Age Guy as a kind of bitchy James Murphy parody but it just doesn't sound very good. Still, I do like how this album goes through seemingly every post-breakup emotional stage at some point.
Where's the best place to start with Czars?
― Matt DC, Saturday, 4 May 2013 15:30 (ten years ago) link
The Ugly People vs The Beautiful People, imo
― Tim F, Saturday, 4 May 2013 22:22 (ten years ago) link
This album is even sadder than I realised ;_;
― Tim F, Saturday, 11 May 2013 10:43 (ten years ago) link
okay this album rules pretty hard
― AMERICA IS ABOUT RESSLING (DJP), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 18:00 (ten years ago) link
I really enjoyed his gig in Edinburgh on Sunday night. The songs from this album were great in a live setting.
― treefell, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 18:35 (ten years ago) link
Astounding in London last night. New songs sounded even better with heavier synths and Grant's charisma is through the roof - brutal candour interspersed with lols. I suspect a lot of people were hoping for more Queen of Denmark (five songs vs everything from PGG) but as a show it was faultless.
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 16 May 2013 09:04 (ten years ago) link
Motherfucker, whoever did this:
After our show in Brighton tonight, someone who was apparently in the audience stole my computer off the stage, which has my entire life on it, i am shocked and just completely speechless, i don't understand why or how someone could do this, but if whoever took it is reading this, if you turn it in to the church where we played or leave it at Jurys Inn in Brighton, there will be no consequences, no questions asked. I have so many things on that computer which i need.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 May 2013 23:32 (ten years ago) link
Fuck that shit, seriously :-(
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 16 May 2013 23:39 (ten years ago) link
Yes to hell with that. But this is probably suddenly my favorite thing of the year. And yes Tim correct about Ugly People vs. Beautiful People for Czars pick, that thing still makes me weak a decade later.
― @GracieLoPan #fyi (Display Name (this cannot be changed):), Friday, 17 May 2013 00:30 (ten years ago) link
I'm really digging this guy's countrypolitan vibe.
― Darin, Saturday, 18 May 2013 19:48 (ten years ago) link
stunning gig at cambridge last night. his self-deprecating, sweary and sad explanations of the songs from new album had me fall in love with it, which I found a lot less immediate than Queen of Denmark. Also did not realise how powerful the songs were when they were live with pulsating synths. He was pretty bitter about the laptop, but I think that made him angrier on some of the songs + 6 song encore!
― danzig, Monday, 20 May 2013 00:06 (ten years ago) link
for real though "GMF" is the song of the year, right?
― scott seward, Thursday, 23 May 2013 23:50 (ten years ago) link
you can't deny this song. i dare someone to deny this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIxZZdYPh3Q
― scott seward, Thursday, 23 May 2013 23:52 (ten years ago) link
its undeniable.
that is great
because of this thread i was listening to queen of denmark a lot
but the first 2 songs on the new one really threw me off w/the electronic direction
he's just really good at making 70s singer songwriter stuff he should stick to that
― unfinest DN (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 24 May 2013 00:04 (ten years ago) link
seriously, this dude's voice is fucking incredible
― they are either militarists (ugh) or kangaroos (?) (DJP), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 15:23 (ten years ago) link
Yes and yes again.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 4 June 2013 15:34 (ten years ago) link
He is but thus my Nilsson-in-the-80s comparison point I made upthread. He's smart enough to know his metier AND to extend it.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 4 June 2013 15:35 (ten years ago) link
I ordered this through Rough Trade MONTHS ago, when it was not yet released in the US. Now it is, it's everywhere, but I still haven't gotten anything from RT. Sucks, because I really want to buy it (yeah, I'm one of those crazy people you read about that still buys these things) but I know the day I do, there will be a package from Rough Trade in my door.
― henry s, Tuesday, 4 June 2013 16:58 (ten years ago) link
fortunately you can listen to it on Spotify while you wait for your copy to show up
― they are either militarists (ugh) or kangaroos (?) (DJP), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link
i've bought this but its also on grooveshart (if your office will not permit spotify).
― give life back to old guys (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 17:27 (ten years ago) link
Holy shit is he ever great live. There wasn't a single track that didn't hit harder than the studio version.
― Simon H., Thursday, 4 July 2013 13:19 (ten years ago) link
fyi this album is pretty much flawless
― big black nemesis, Puya chilensis (DJP), Friday, 5 July 2013 21:12 (ten years ago) link
I like his singing on Queen of Denmark! It sounds so loose and fun. The couple times I've sat down with this one his voice sounds too mannered and cleaned up. Produced. Doesn't fit the material. Maybe I'll fall in love with it on next listen
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 5 July 2013 22:14 (ten years ago) link
Paraphrasing a bit I just recalled from the live show: after taking a moment to mourn the advance of anti-gay laws in Russia, he mentions that he's just written a song about Putin entitled "Smug Cunt." "That's not a joke. And I don't care if he sprinkles polonium on my Pop Tarts." Pretty sure he launched into "Glacier" after that. <3 <3
― Simon H., Saturday, 6 July 2013 06:19 (ten years ago) link
When this is good it is very good indeed.
― djh, Saturday, 7 December 2013 23:58 (ten years ago) link
I bought the miniLP because Beth Orton is singing one of the tracks.
Hm, interesting
― Mark G, Sunday, 8 December 2013 23:35 (ten years ago) link
I wonder if Biggi from Gus Gus is being invited to produce lots of albums now? (Perhaps he already did so?)
― djh, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 18:39 (ten years ago) link
saw this guy on letterman. was the song he performed representative? b/c i'm still not sure it wasn't a joke. it was horrible, listless, dull as shit. maybe his lyrical approach in general reveals what he was trying to do here but out of context it was almost a parody of mopey singer-songwriter lyrics.
― ★feminist parties i have attended (amateurist), Thursday, 9 January 2014 05:39 (ten years ago) link
Reminds me a bit of nilsson
― Sufjan Grafton, Thursday, 9 January 2014 06:30 (ten years ago) link
the slice that is a parody of mopey singer songwriters anyway
The stilted songwriting works some of the time, particularly on 'Glacier' which I find affecting partly because he sings things like 'And creating spectacular landscapes. And nourishing the ground. With precious minerals and other stuff." Something very bathetic about that.
― An embarrassing doorman and garbage man (dog latin), Thursday, 9 January 2014 09:59 (ten years ago) link
Self-conscious self-parody is a big part of his deal.
― Tim F, Thursday, 9 January 2014 11:27 (ten years ago) link
smdh at how anyone could miss the humour in GMF
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 9 January 2014 11:40 (ten years ago) link
One of the great things about this album is how it's a monomanaical breakup record written from the perspective of someone who knows full well that they're becoming so boring that their friends have started avoiding them.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 9 January 2014 11:44 (ten years ago) link
(And yet still can't stop banging on about it)
^^^^
I think a lot of the time he chooses deliberately ridiculous lyrics as a way of getting across that extreme emotions are often ridiculous (because overblown, or because corny, or because cliched, or because incoherent) though still sincerely felt.
― Tim F, Thursday, 9 January 2014 12:07 (ten years ago) link
yep
― An embarrassing doorman and garbage man (dog latin), Thursday, 9 January 2014 12:09 (ten years ago) link
Matt OTM.
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 9 January 2014 15:21 (ten years ago) link
I can find some of the (same) lyrics deeply irritating and some close to genius, depending on my mood.
I must admit I don't like the "... and other stuff" because it feels incomplete or tossed off. I sometimes get that same feeling with the swearing in a kind of some of it is powerful *quality swearing* and other times it is a bit of a waste - other words might have said much more.
― djh, Thursday, 9 January 2014 17:56 (ten years ago) link
He's said in interviews that he hones the lyrics for ages so it's not tossed off. It's a deliberate stylistic choice - to run against the grain of a sweeping melody with awkward or abrasive language. Doesn't mean you have to like it, obviously. I like "other stuff" and love him in general but I sometimes wish he'd gone for a more conventionally elegant rhyme. I looked up the interview I did with him where I mentioned that line and he said: "I have to say, not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I’m particularly pleased with that line, 'And other stuff'. Because of how it functions in that song, and it works."
And then later: "I guess the first time that I noticed it was maybe reading Henry Miller. It was, 'Oh, this is just like people talk', and that’s interesting. Just how people talk is interesting. And that combination, I guess that’s what I’m fascinated with, the combination of literature speak and how we actually speak, and then profanity, because profanity … you know, I would get in big trouble for using a swearword when I was a child. I’d get slapped in the face. But, let’s face it: those words can’t be replaced by anything else. I mean, I could have said, 'I hate this bloody town' but that’s not what we would say, you know."
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 9 January 2014 21:35 (ten years ago) link
Nommed for a Brit. What a turn-up.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 9 January 2014 21:42 (ten years ago) link
I agree that some of the swearing is needed and works. And - particularly as one of the few things I know about Grant is his language skills - other times I just wish he'd flicked through his thesaurus or racked his brains for a different word.
(I *do* like the album a lot.)
― djh, Thursday, 9 January 2014 21:48 (ten years ago) link
Xpost As an amateur songwriter I fucking love that approach, and stuff like that
― An embarrassing doorman and garbage man (dog latin), Thursday, 9 January 2014 21:50 (ten years ago) link
"and other stuff" is great, it undercuts the pomposity of the lyrics beforehand.
Similarly, I also love the bit in "Sigourney Weaver" where he starts singing about feeling like Winona Ryder in "Dracula": "and she couldn't get that accent right / and neither could that other guy".
― Tim F, Thursday, 9 January 2014 22:05 (ten years ago) link
Reading this thread for the first time.
can't think of many comparisons that really work.
Am I the only one who thought Brandan Perry when I first heard him? Their voices are incredibly similar imo. That's a compliment of course. The song "Pale Green Ghosts" even sounds like late-period Dead Can Dance.
― LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 9 January 2014 23:46 (ten years ago) link
Grant's turn on a Piano Magic album was a pretty good DCD impersonation
I have a hard time with his solo records, and I had a hard time with the last Czars album (with it's god awful autotune) but sometimes it feels like it really works.
― akm, Friday, 10 January 2014 02:30 (ten years ago) link
xp First time I heard Sigourney Weaver, knowing nothing about Grant's sense of humour, I laughed out loud. It felt liberating, like I didn't know you could have a lyric like that with a voice like that. If Malkmus or Mark E Smith sang that line it would be funny but expected - Grant doesn't sing like someone funny and I find that dissonance exhilirating.
― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, 10 January 2014 08:57 (ten years ago) link
Tracey Thorn sounds ragged on "Disappointed," no?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 10:56 (eight years ago) link
new single is nice, better than anything I can recall from the last LP
― Simon H., Tuesday, 10 July 2018 19:01 (five years ago) link
So ILM doesn't really care for John Grant ? I'm not really convinced by his latest album's all electronic approach. I miss his piano and strings. Still has a great voice though. Has anyone else listened to it ?
― LeRooLeRoo, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:16 (five years ago) link
I tried - also found it underwhelming. First two albums still classic, hope he finds an appealing groove again.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:18 (five years ago) link
The title track is amazing but the album bounces back and forth for me. I do have a bit of a hard time with the 'funny voices' approach. He sounds like he's having fun though.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:25 (five years ago) link
Sadly the more fun he's having the worse his music is. Last two albums have been corny as hell.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:26 (five years ago) link
True, but, at least there's still something there, unlike, say, Mark Kozelek, who also used to make beautiful music and now does...something different that he apparently finds more fulfilling but no one likes to listen to.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:32 (five years ago) link
I do have a bit of a hard time with the 'funny voices' approach
Same here. It's barely listenable in "Diet Gum" and only tolerable in "Metamorphosis".
― LeRooLeRoo, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:49 (five years ago) link
Well it'll be interesting to see how that plays out live -- seeing him (finally) in two and a half weeks.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:58 (five years ago) link
I'm seing him next Monday. It's his first time in Montréal. If he plays "Glacier" I'll be a very happy guy.
― LeRooLeRoo, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:21 (five years ago) link
I loved his collaboration with Wrangler that came out under the Creep Show moniker.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 16:26 (five years ago) link
His tracks on the 2014 Hercules & Love Affair album are terrific, extensions of Pale Green Ghosts' coffee house electronica. It's been diminishing returns ever since.
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link
So the concert was awesome. He really pulls off the new songs well live. The harmonies are great. He also spoke to us in perfect French many times. Added bonus, none other than the ledgendary Budgie is behind the drumkit and I got to speak with him and take pictures after the show.
― LeRooLeRoo, Tuesday, 4 December 2018 13:26 (five years ago) link
Wait, hold the fuck on, that was BUDGIE? How did I not clock that.
I gotta agree with LeRoo, just a wonderful show here in SF last night. "Pale Green Ghosts" got a particularly wonderful arrangement, queasily wonderful dark 80s electronics, and after it he said that reflected "four years of listening to Ministry's "Over the Shoulder" 12"...greatest remix ever." My girlfriend loved how the new album's "Metamorphosis" sounded live, saying it felt absolutely terrifying at the end. The main set closer of "Sensitive New Age Guy," "Glacier" and "Queen of Denmark" was an astounding 1-2-3.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 03:29 (five years ago) link
Yes! PGG was huge and "Metamorphosis" is better live than on the album.
Budgie came down in the club after the show to buy a drink from the bar. When I started talking to him he said he was just taking it to John backstage and would come back to chat, and he actually did! Really nice guy and I was pretty starstruck.
― LeRooLeRoo, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 13:42 (five years ago) link
There's a new track today, apparently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecBpAwovikg
― djh, Wednesday, 24 March 2021 09:55 (three years ago) link
One of my favorite albums of the decade.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 10:21 (three years ago) link
oooh cate le bon produced this new one...fingers crossed it breaks his streak of weirdly lousy albums
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 11:42 (three years ago) link
"the only boy" is also on this. it sounds really nice. the lyrics are a bit much. it probably shouldn't be ten minutes long.
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 12:24 (three years ago) link
I thought this revive was going to be related to the Facebook ad that uses "Black Belt":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ekg56Ji56o
― Dana Jel Pey (DJP), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 13:35 (three years ago) link
beard man gets paid
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 13:47 (three years ago) link
I was gonna mention it in the PSB/Tag Team thread.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 13:48 (three years ago) link
Ha I was going to mention it, too
― Dana Jel Pey (DJP), Wednesday, 24 March 2021 14:14 (three years ago) link
I finally am catching up on the albums after Pale Green Ghosts and just started Love Is Magic and, well... there's pretty much no way the live version of "Metamorphosis" could be worse
― Dana Jel Pey (DJP), Thursday, 25 March 2021 13:37 (three years ago) link
he's obviously a brilliant guy and a great singer but my suspicion is he needs just the right collaborators to shield him from his worst instincts...this is why I'm semi hopeful about the new one
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Thursday, 25 March 2021 13:59 (three years ago) link
I think Colonel Mustard did it in the billiard room / Yeah yeah
I might have to peace out on this
― Dana Jel Pey (DJP), Thursday, 25 March 2021 14:05 (three years ago) link
Have posted this on the Gus Gus thread but worth putting here, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mwdn0rYjA
― djh, Sunday, 23 May 2021 19:05 (two years ago) link