Grandaddy - 'Sumday' (V2)
4/5
By: Toby L
Grandaddy are a most paradoxical of brazen noise-pop conjurors. Early works are littered with as much a focal prejudice on Young-esque melodious consistency as they are with distortion-ridden, arty-farty guitars and brash weirdness (look to early single, 'Summer Here Kids', for a perfect example of these major components blending rigidly to sublime effect).
Yet, somehow, the occasionally-reared grittiness of yesteryear seems to have largely manifested into an altogether more mature, melancholic and restrained form amidst the band's sun-kissed, fourth studio-album, 'Sumday'.
Beach Boys playing volleyball on the dunes with The Flaming Lips, songs are minimalist, just a tad quirky in parts (the trademark-'Daddy chug and Casio keyboards of 'Stray Dog & The Chocolate Shake', of note), whilst the overriding notion is that the band are ever-continuing to reach their dignified musical-zenith, whilst serving as the US' quintessential answer to former touring-buddies, Welsh eccentrics, Super Furry Animals.
Quite why Jason Lytle and co. have resided so fully on atmospherics and harmonics more than ever becomes clear from the outset - it makes for even more compulsive listening. Recent single 'Now It's On' opens the collection, and never once does the lump shift from the throat. Whether pathos-ridden lullabies ('The Go In The Go-For-It', 'OK With My Decay'), or elaborate, full-scale epics (the blissful serenity of 'The Warming Sun', with its washing synths and lilting piano, or an organ-drenched, concluding 'The Final Push To The Sum'), or even more standard thoroughfare (the fuzzy growl of 'Yeah Is What We Had'), 'Sumday' gleams with ease over and over.
Elsewhere, there's a load of indie introspection that Morrissey would shed a tear to ('Trouble with a capital T', in fact, within the dreamy acoustica of 'Lost On Yer Merry Way'), and a grisly series of chord-changes in the form of 'El Caminos In The West' that fans of previous works would have a tough time finding gross indifference with.
They may still prove one of the world's most beguiling of indie-driven talents, but - from tenderly woeful tones to sturdier, rhythmic-based hammerings - Grandaddy triumph almost effortlessly. Sumday all bands will strive to compete at this staggering level.
Artists in this article: Grandaddy
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