Friday, March 3, 2017

Grandaddy, Last Place, 2017

Album Review

By Scotch LaRock

The power went out again. I'm listening to the house reboot, like I'm running NORAD, like I'm caught in a scene from Wargames. "All systems back online, sir. You may continue."

...

I was introduced to Grandaddy way back in 1996 by a friend who had previously pushed me to dig on the lo-fi world of Sebadoh. I was hooked. Since then Jason Lytle and Grandaddy have been tackling the relationship between man, his place in the world, and the technology that binds it together.  It's been 11 years since Grandaddy's last record; and, with the state of how we consume daily life, there couldn't be a better time for a return.

Jason Lytle is essentially the man behind Grandaddy. During the band's hiatus, Jason released a few solo records, collaborated with members of Earlimart, and produced the last Band Of Horses LP.

Fuzzed out guitars and synthesizers dominate Grandaddy's catalog. There is just an amazing mix of Brian Wilson, Jeff Lynne, and Pink Floyd filtered through Lytle's analog home recordings, which are the backbone of this band.

Last Place is this lo-fi dystopian dreamscape. It is the perfect soundtrack to how I'm currently feeling in my relationship with the world and the tech that I use to see it all. We can see our interpersonal relationships play out online where you can delete the pictures but not the feelings. We live the commuter struggle that induces the repetition of "please keep going, just keep going."

Last Place resides somewhere between Grandaddy classics The Sophtware Slump and Sumday. This is Grandaddy's sweet spot. Go back and check out "The Crystal Lake" or "Now It's On" for a taste of the band's history.

The Grandaddy story of Last Place picks up where Jason Lytle has left Modesto, California behind. Modesto and the west coast have been the long-standing foundation for Grandaddy records.  Jason Lytle has since relocated to Montana, and now we're living in a breakup record, fraught with the details of the minutiae of everyday life during a breakup, our consumerism, our anxieties, and the coping. Grandaddy continue to cope, living among the home studio, machines creating songs that are as much about feel and texture, about atmosphere as they are about their lyrical meaning. When I listen to a Grandaddy record, i can feel the isolation, the stubborn desire not to accept change. The same way I've felt listening to Brian Wilson or Pink Floyd or Radiohead.

Last Place is out now on 30th Century Records.



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