Sounds | Grayscale, Babylon (Say It To My Face)
- Maui Vindevogel
- 10 aug 2021
- 3 minuten om te lezen
Ik weet niet hoe ik het heb gemist, maar Grayscale heeft intussen maar liefst twee nieuwe liedjes uitgebracht. Na de release van Dirty Bombs een twee tal weken geleden, kwam vorige week ook Babylon (Say It To My Face) uit. De jongens vinden meer en meer hun sound en dat doen ze voortreffelijk. Ik kan alleen maar fan zijn en uitkijken naar hun aankomende album Umbra later deze maand.
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Five best friends from a blue-collar American city got together and started a band. They took intimate urban stories of broken hearts, bad drugs, blissful sex, and busted dreams and turned them into one alternative rock cult favorite after another. Then, they crossed into the next dimension with a bold depiction of the big sound theyād always hinted at uplifted on a high of gospel harmonies, horn solos, and the kind of lyrics you get tattooed in places you want people to see (and places you donāt want people to see). This is the story of Grayscale so far and how they got to their third full-length album, Umbra [Fearless Records]. After racking up 50 million streams and receiving praise from Forbes, Billboard, and more, the proud Philadelphia quintetāCollin Walsh [lead vocals], Andrew Kyne [guitar], Nick Ventimiglia [bass], Dallas Molster [guitar], and Nick Veno [drums]āopen up themselves and their sound throughout these eleven tracks. āThis band is how we express ourselves,ā affirms Collin. āI come from an old school Irish family that didnāt talk about feelings. This band means so much to me, because Iāve been best friends with these guys since I was 13-years-old. Weāve known each other for 60% of our lives at this point. These are real stories. We love what we do. Itās why weāre alive.ā Their music feels just as alive⦠The boys introduced themselves on 2017ās Adornment. However, they reached a critical and creative high watermark with Nella Vita in 2019. In a āfour-out-of-five starā review, KERRANG! hailed it as ābrilliant,ā and Rock Sound called it āGrayscaleās most intensely personal body of work to date.ā Forbes went as far as to christen them āone of the alternative rock sceneās finest new bands.ā Within a year, the record posted up 15 million-plus streams as they sold out headline dates coast-to-coast. Under lockdown in Philadelphia during the Global Pandemic, they worked on music with producer Courtney Ballard, finding āa new trail.ā That trail wound through influences as diverse as Andrewās background playing R&B, soul, funk, and gospel in church and Dallasās fascination with all things eighties. They even invited Reel Big Fishās Matt Appleton to pepper the soundscapes with live horns. āAs musicians, we want to do everything as a band first,ā states Collin. āWe donāt want to initially write in the computer. Itās about getting in the room and playing.ā Together, they struck a balance between darker lyrics and brighter melodies as evidenced by the title, Umbra. āIn a celestial sense, Umbra is the area of complete darkness in an eclipse,ā he explains. āItās a shadowy interior that would otherwise be surrounded by light. The sound of the record is pop rock on the outside, but when you listen to what Iām saying, the stories on the inner core are sexual, vindictive, and wicked. Thatās the concept. It reflects the authenticity of who we are as an East Coast rock band. Weāre not trying to be anything other than exactly what we are.ā Grayscale introduce the album with the single āDirty Bombs.ā A thumping groove underscores the verses as the track builds towards a skyscraping refrain offset by a
hummable guitar solo and heavenly keys. Meanwhile, the frontman urges, āJust be yourself, itās not so bad.ā āāDirty Bombsā asks a few questions,ā he goes on. āWhy do you care more about what other people think of you than what you think of yourself? Why do people in 2021 spend so much time fucking projecting how they want to be perceived rather than working on themselves? There are all of these twisted lessons. You have to understand itās a process. Youāre going to be faced with good shit and fucked up shit in life. Itās a big theme.ā In the end, Grayscale continue to move forwardāall heart and no apologies. āThis is the realest version of us,ā Collin leaves off. āWe did some soul searching as a band, and we arrived exactly where we want to be. Thereās no bullshit. This is whowe are. If youāre on board, thank you. Now, letās see where it goes.ā
(bron: Fearless Records)