John Grant
Event on 2015-10-30 21:00:00
Its been the most spectacular of journeys, from a place in time when John Grant feared hed never make music again or escape a life of addiction, to winning awards, accolades and Top 20 chart positions, and collaborating with Sinead OConnor, Goldfrapp, Elton John and Hercules& Love Affair. The fact he subsequently won a Best International Male Solo Artist nomination at the 2014 BRITS alongside Eminem, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars and Drake, seemed like some fantasy dreamt up in a moment of outrageous hubris. Just months later, the BBCs request for a session with symphony orchestra provided (subsequently released by Bella Union as John Grant And The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra: Live in Concert), followed by Grant taking the Royal Northern Sinfonia on a UK tour, confirmed that it was simply the latest spectacularchapter in his personal and artistic renaissance.Now comes Grants third album, the invitingly titled Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, a veritable tour de force that further refines and entwines his two principal strands of musical DNA, the sumptuous tempered ballad and the taut, fizzing electronic pop song. There are newer musical accomplishments across its panoply of towering sound, like the title tracks new steely demeanour, while the ominous drama of Black Blizzard echoes both John Carpenter and Bernard Black Devil Disco Club Fevres beautiful and icy synthscapes. The contagious, gleeful You And Him marries buzzing rock with a squelchy electronic undertow,while orchestral drama swathes the bad-dreamy Global Warming and the albums gorgeously aching widescreen finale Geraldine. Grey Tickles, Black Pressure was recorded in Dallas with producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Franz Ferdinand, Swans) – coincidentally the same state of Texas where Grant nailed his 2010 solo debut Queen Of Denmark in the company of Dentons wondrous Midlake, after an enforced absence following the implosion of his band The Czars and a period of six years learning to live and survive without all his former crutches. After that landmark return, which MOJO made its album of 2010, 2013s Pale Green Ghosts was made in Icelandic capital Reykjavik (where Grant, a native of Buchanan, Michigan, later raised in Parker, Colorado, has lived ever since), which entered the UK Top 20 in its first week and ended up as Rough Trade Shops Album of the Year 2013, The Guardians No.2 and in MOJO and Uncuts Top Five). Such recognition, iced by years of sell-out shows across Europe and a recent US tour as special invited guest of the legendary Pixies, should allow the notoriously self-critical and insecure Grant the passing thought that Grey Tickles, Black Pressure will deservedly cement his reputation as the most disarmingly honest, caustic, profound and funny diarist of the human condition in the persistently testing, even tragic, era that is the 21stcentury. I do think the albums great, and Im really proud of it, he says. I wanted to get moodier and angrier on this record, but I probably had a lot more fun making it. He cites amazing session keyboardist Bobby Sparks, who really funked things up, as part of that fun; likewise a month of Dallas sunshine after a brutal dark winter in Iceland. And therewas a lot of laughter. That said, fun isnt the first ingredient youd expect when you know the root of the album title. Grey tickles is the literal translation from Icelandic for mid-life crisis, while black pressure is the direct translationfrom Turkish for nightmare, Grant explains, an unusually gifted linguist (hes fluent in German, Russian and now tackling Icelandic). And then there is the album artwork, a stark portrait of a blood-splattered Grant wielding a blood-stained croquet mallet. Its what I feel like doing every time someone calls me a faggot, he declares, like Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Nevertheless, there are plenty of positive streaks in Grey Tickles, Black Pressure. Grant, for one, is in fabulous voice throughout and has moved on from the specific subject matter that shaped both previous albums (though the concept of love always figures into the mix). Disappointing featuring vocal guest Tracey Thorne is an exuberant tribute to new love, against which Grants favourite Saturday Night Live comediennes, Russian artists and ballet dancers with or without tights pale in comparison. The albums other two guests are vocalist Amanda Palmer and former Banshee drummer Budgie. Petur Hallgrimsson (guitar) and Jakob Smari Magnusson (bass) from Grants live band, and returning arranger Fiona Brice, complete what was a particularly happy studio family.Even the albums creative process was a triumph against adversity. Having had to include new material for the orchestral tour, John Congleton then asked that Grant turn up in Dallas with all the new material written. In spite of being exceedingly untalented in the art of time management AND the dark, brutal Icelandic winter which always takes a toll, I got everything written in time, he says.And then it was all recorded and mixed in a month – which for me is insane, because I always want more time and Im such an over-thinker. But I had to be finished before the Pixies tour. I intentionally put myself into that situation because I wanted to challenge myself, as Ive done with every album. But the end result is indeed a moody, angry record, laced with levering humour and wounded pathos, yet as dark as Reykjavik in February. It starts and ends with spoken word snippets called, simply, Intro and Outro, both taken from the same Biblical quote (from 1 Corinthians 13) regarding the divinity of love that young John was taught in church. In between are 12 songs that document the reality of love on planet Earth, corrupted by pain, misunderstandings, jealousy, objectification and expectations, as Grant puts it.Love corrupted is explored by the likes of the dreamy AOR-gasm Down Here, with its oceans of longing, guessing games and no guarantees, according to Grant. The funky Crisco-disco of Snug Slacks rails againstthose beautiful people the modern celebrity, he says – who so unnerve him, forcing him to have developed such a veryhigh toleranceforinappropriate behaviour as the lyric puts it. But there is hatred too. You And Him rails against those whod crush all before them, from the profiteering US food and tobacco industries to property developers and those thugs who perpetuate prejudice and bigotry. The title track (name-checking Grants Uncle Paul, who did lose his arm in a corn thresher) posits that children who have cancer means we mustnt indulge in self-pity. However, he notes, we must grin and bare it while waiting for death to take everything weve fought so hard to gain.The twisting electro-rhythmic Voodoo Doll is a counterbalance, for a friend who is far away in the throes of depression. I make a voodoo doll and do good things to it, even though things invariably gets messy! If only Grant had such a benefactor when young, blushing uncontrollably with shame, my skin turned inside out, an awful memory brought to life in the simmering cauldron of Magma Arrives. The albums last two songs are among its finest. No More Tangles fights against co-dependency with narcissistic queers, he sings, through the metaphor of hair care products. Its about not apologizing for who you are and not putting up with unnecessary bullshit from peoplewho do not care about you. Although my story is no more or less important than anyone elses, at least at this point I can admit to being a human who deserves to be happy no more or less than anyone else. But in Geraldine (as in the late Geraldine Paige, one of freakiest,strongest, coolest actresses Ive come across), Grants latest actor-inspired song (following Sigourney Weaver and Ernest Borgine) is Grants chance to ask her if she too had to, put up with this shit, that life dishes out.Ongoing health issues (not least of which is handling his HIV Positive status), still processing, decades of brainwashing, he says from a traumatic childhood, Grant still manages to keep fighting the good fight, and writing his way out of trouble with another fantastic record. I want to continue to challenge myself, he says. To keep collaborating, to get the sound or the direction that will take me where I need to go. To keep taking the bull by the horns.
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John Grant is a post from: Improve Your Reputation