When Geordie Greep determined to name his debut solo album The New Sound, he didn’t have the sound nailed down but. He knew that was going to be the title earlier than he even began recording it, when nobody had any cause to imagine there wouldn’t be a black midi album after Hellfire. Then, only a week earlier than formally asserting the album – which he had already previewed stay – the frontman revealed, by way of a collection of Instagram feedback, that the band was “indefinitely over.” What Greep teased as “new music, new group, new sound” whereas selling one present in April instantly took on a distinct weight of expectation. Some followers already confounded by the black midi state of affairs might not have been thrilled by the thought of Greep stepping into a completely totally different course, however confusion and pleasure have all the time been positively correlated within the band’s universe. The New Sound does go away you bewildered, which is a minimum of partially an indication of its success. That it’s additionally enthralling in its personal proper is a big plus.
Greep is aware of he isn’t reinventing the wheel right here, however making “new sound” his mission assertion appears to have been essential in really going via with it. It finds him venturing into an array of disparate types that wouldn’t have gelled throughout the context of – or that he would have a tough time pitching to – the band, from Steely Dan to numerous strains of Latin music, with out shedding its basically iconoclastic influences. To really nail it down, Greep recorded the LP over a number of periods on two continents: in London, with former black midi members Morgan Simpson and Seth ‘Shank’ Evans, and in São Paulo, with a band of native musicians whose free-wheeling spirit and note-perfect supply justify the report’s grandiosity. In some methods, the moments that musically outline The New Sound are the grooviest and least chaotic, the tracks that coast somewhat on what’s new with out the looming gravity of its thematic issues: the instrumental title observe, which boasts a slinky double bass solo and fantastically intertwining electrical guitars panned left and proper, in addition to the transient however pleasant ‘Bongo Season’.
The delicacy of its lyrical concepts is one more reason The New Sound in all probability fares greatest as a solo album. Greep understood that something lower than an uncompromising – and, extra importantly, fairly centered – method may simply drown the entire ship. “It was like, ‘Oh, man, if this comes off mistaken, it’s unhealthy information,’” he admitted of ‘Holy, Holy,’ the lead single that also stirred some controversy for its distinctly convincing portrayal of the sort of pathetic character that populates the album. One of many causes MJ Lenderman’s fascination with related sorts of males on the critically lauded Manning Fireworks – his track ‘Wristwatch,’ like ‘Holy, Holy,’ particularly nods to Andrew Tate – couldn’t be as divisive is that Greep favors over-the-top showmanship over delicate non-sequiturs; he’s the one observing drunk males in bars in addition to the one bringing them to the stage, and the stench of male insecurity and sleaziness carries via the centuries (whereas Lenderman’s sketches are tied to the fashionable period). If ‘Holy, Holy’ isn’t up your alley, it’s unlikely the remainder of The New Sound shall be. Nevertheless it does supply a fuller image.
None of that is significantly new territory for Greep: the verbosity, theatricality, and vulgarity of The New Sound are all in keeping with the final couple of black midi albums specifically. However inserting himself entrance and heart (except ‘Bike,’ which fingers the mic to Shank) permits him to flesh them right into a extra narratively cohesive pay attention. A number of the tacky musical signifiers match the characters’ corniness with out being completely subsumed by them, whereas the maniacal nature of the music immediately flows via the characters Greep is embodying: their ludicrous flights of fancy, their overblown fears, their whole disconnect from actuality. Dismantling the road between the narrator and his topics is Greep’s humorousness: most lyricists would go away the joke at “Are you aware what I imply?/ Is your favourite flip of phrase,” however Greep actually makes it land by repeating the phrase time and again, then saying it’s additionally “your second favourite flip of phrase.”
‘Holy, Holy’ is sleeker in presentation than different songs on the album, which suggests it’s tougher to make that separation, however in case there was any doubt, Greep’s acerbity elsewhere cuts via any semblance of romanticism and sinks the characters to deeper lows of humiliation. Ridiculing “one other lonely government cunt” who solely “is aware of learn how to pay to the touch” is one factor; saying “I might’ve disemboweled myself simply to carry your hand” or “With every itch of my loins, the music of your voice” is kind of one other. Sharp and chronic as his lyrics could also be, generally it’s his inflection that will get the purpose throughout: “to earn you, to love you.” As a lot because it pokes enjoyable at these folks, what it’s finally meant to elicit is pity, which is a troublesome feeling to have interaction with for a complete album. However The New Sound is bizarrely compelling in that it’s not only a assortment of portraits: it tries to show issues round within the closing leg, mounting its ambition, itching for sympathy. However even the best vulnerability Greep can muster for these characters comes up quick.
Nonetheless, past the irreverence and debauchery of all of it, one thing about the place Greep leaves issues cuts proper to the bone. One thing unusually poignant within the picture of “the partner fortunately married who nonetheless dies alone” on the 12-minute epic ‘The Magician,’ which ends with him questioning, “What’s left of the dreamer/ Who goals and goals and goals/ However thinks he isn’t dreaming/ Thinks he’s free?” Greep doesn’t present any solutions, in fact, nor an entirely new sound. His ending with a canopy of ‘If You Are However a Dream’ appears to recommend that none of this fantastical craving is new, both. However his personal reimagining is one thing else, and it’s sufficient to get swept up in.
