Good Grief are from my neck of the woods and the Liverpool Trio have come up with an absolutely storming debut album. I haven't had a grumble for a while, so please bear with me before I rave about the band. Firstly tags and genre labels.
I've seen the band described as Punk, Hardcore, Pop Punk. I've also seen them compared to The Replacements, Husker Du and Soul Asylum. I don't hear any of that. They edge towards Superchunk the odd time and that's fine by me.
Secondly, I saw quite a few reviews and mentions and virtually all were rewritten (or in many cases word for word copies of the) PR. I get the same PR and if I want to say something about a band, I will actually listen to them. This may also explain the badly compared genres.
Phew! Now I can actually write about the subject. Shake Your Faith is a wonderful affair. It is higher than lo fi, but lower than hi-fi. It has a few rough edges, but it is meant to. It inhabits a world somewhere between Power Pop, Indie Rock and Melodic Garage Rock.
You are thankful of the rougher edges, because if this album had a bigger budget, it would be produced into a soulless glossy condensed audio nightmare. As it is, the songs never ever lose their feeling, earthiness or excitement.
This is classic trio stuff. A driving rhythm section that is matched by killer riffs and melodic solos. Vocals are incredibly easy on the ears, no shouty spoiling that tends to occur on this sort of release. Although the songs are mainly at pace, they are not 11 versions of the same thing.
The Oldest Thing On Earth could be New Wave Mod Rock, very Vapors. Line By Line is more American, think The Plimsouls or that era or even Sugar. New Town is College Fuzz Rock with a joyous riff and Dimension Jump could be Pavement.
The Pony Remark is a slacker version of Weezer and the stand out, How Can I Help Falling In Love has an earworm chorus. The album is released on Friday 18 March, so only 2 of the songs are on Bandcamp at the moment. When the album is released, I will add a third track. Shake Your Faith is Indie Guitar Pop at its best. If I can get to The Outpost for the release, I will do.
You can pre-order the Vinyl or the download here. The vinyl is also available from the HHBTM label here.
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