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Sound
XP
Grand Mal is the new band of Bill Whitten (ex-St Johnny). They've supported everyone from the Flaming Lips to Echo and the Bunnymen and the Jesus and Mary Chain to Alex Chilton and you can hear why they're so compatible with their main acts: on 'Bad Timing' they move from glam to gospel, nu-American rock to old blues standards. On some songs there's a louche, Stones-y swagger of the dissolute variety that Primal Scream always carry off so well. On others, the punchy tunes hide a Big Star-like vulnerability and the lyrics reveal a better than average rock vocabulary. In some ways the glam rock glitz of First Time Knockout or the sleazy charm of Old Fashioned puts you in mind of Supergrass' more Bolan-boogie efforts on their latest album. Get Lost has a desert-sized melancholy reminiscent of the JAMC's archetypal American epics. Duty Free, on the other hand, has a cheeky pace that out-Strokes the Strokes. Changing the pace, as they do numerous times in their 41 minutes, Black Aura is a gospel tune, with huge voiced female backing, swelling organ and a big chorus that builds to a big finish. Disaster Film is the album's big moment and the purest 'song' on here. Late night reflective and half-spoken, half-sung, it's a funereal story, gently pushed on by mourning piano, delicate guitar and appropriately downcast vocals: 'here's my beer and tobacco, don't burn my house down, don't OD in my bathroom'. It swells to a string-heavy chorus with the conclusion 'the thing about people/is we're low down and lethal/from the moment we wake'. If you ever wanted a 3am song that reeked of existential angst, this is it. It takes a couple of plays to appreciate the full range of the album but if you don't mind an American band with bagfuls of attitude, you might want to join their gang.
Review by Ged M
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