What is rock vs. pop and where’s the dividing line? Things can get a bit fuzzy, particularly in the indie world. This next record is a bit of both.
Disc 1805 is…Four of Arrows
Artist: Great Grandpa
Year of Release: 2019
What’s up with the Cover? I would say some astral travel is going down here. This lady has gotten herself in the right frame of mind with some ritual and has laid down to go for a float on the astral plane. Um…cool.
Personally, if I were going to go for a float in the astral plane, I’d pick a more secure place to leave my body. What’s going to stop some wandering bear or troupe of ants from messing with my physical self? Maybe the arrows provide some sort of mystical barrier that vermin and predators can’t cross.
But I digress…on with the review.
How I Came To Know It: I read a review when this album came out, gave it a listen and liked what I heard. But because I couldn’t find it on CD I didn’t buy it for the longest time. Then, during COVID I discovered downloading music wasn’t so terrible after all, so I went back through my old wish list for records I couldn’t get on physical media. I got this one off Bandcamp, which is a great way to support smaller independent artists, because they get the lion’s share of the sale.
I just took a look at Discogs and apparently you can get this album on CD. If so, I haven’t found it yet and until I do, my version will have to do.
How It Stacks Up: Great Grandpa has three studio albums to their credit, but I’ve only got this one, so it can’t stack up.
Ratings: 3 stars
“Four of Arrows” is one of those albums that benefits from a listen on headphones. The growl of my car engine was unkind to the subtlety of Great Grandpa’s music, which is a rock/pop mix that relies on mood over boom.
It all starts with lead singer Al Menne, who has a sweet pop quality that sits on top of arrangements that sometimes get a bit too heavy for their own good. Menne’s vocals aren’t powerhouse, but she has a nice lilt and even a bit of growl when she cuts loose. The combination allows her to spin like a satellite around music that goes from very sparse to very rich in the space of a single song.
This quality is what often makes the songs on “Four of Arrows” interesting, but it can also lend itself to being overwrought. The line is thin, and the band tends to fall on both sides of it, sometimes within the same song.
A good example is “Digger”, which starts out light and gentle and ends boisterous. Indie bands often make the mistake of letting the arrangement mask over the failure to resolve a song’s melody. At the same time, this is one of the record’s best songs, because while it doesn’t end well, the dynamics between soft and hard along the way make for some unexpected but welcome choices. Just know how to wrap it up.
Of late I’ve been finding myself surrounded by Japanese art and philosophical concepts. A few months ago I learned about the imperfect beauty of wabi sabi. Here Great Grandpa’s song “Mono no Aware” introduced me to that concept of wistful impermanence. At least I hope that adjective/noun combo captures it. Like many great ideas from other languages and cultures it doesn’t neatly translate. That’s the best part about it, frankly. Embrace seeing things differently!
It is also one of the record’s strongest songs, itself an exploration not just of mono no aware, but also the uncertainty of whether you can ever truly feel what someone else is feeling. Not really, but it is always worth the effort.
Many of the songs have an upbeat pop radio quality but with a coating of sadness and uncertainty. The effect leaves you with a restless energy and a desire to go for a walk in the rain.
When I first heard “Four of Arrows” it made a strong impression. Five or six years later the bloom was off the rose, but after a few listens some of the old magic came back. Now if I could just find it on compact disc…
Best tracks: Digger, Mono no Aware, Bloom, Rosalie, Split Up the Kids
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