my first time listening to grandaddy was maybe 10-12 years ago. ‘A.M. 180’ was the song of choice for a skiing video uploaded by bearsden ski club-goers of their holiday to france. they were incredibly cool and i wanted to be just like them. ‘A.M. 180’ does that thing songs tend to do – take you back to a time you often forget unless poked, it’s a pleasure to escape for a while.
a friend of mine recently sent me a list of the world’s saddest records ever made. ‘The Sophtware Slump’, the aptly titled sophomore album from Grandaddy, and is only a letdown in name. this was my top pick from the list so far.
‘he’s simple, he’s dumb, he’s the pilot’ seems relevant even in 2000, struggling to communicate, longing for any sort of stability and just when it seems so close it still drifts. it’s a slow jam except instead of sensual dancing i am just feeling a bit flat.
the next few tracks pick up in tempo but not in optimism, ‘the crystal lake’ sounds like a space odyssey, longing to leave an unknown path and get back to any sort of known ground. everything in this seems immensely personal, and i wish i paid more attention to/had more time to listen to music from the early 2000s. it’s easy to write off that time as cliche grunge sadness in rock, but there’s something in everything and i don’t think its given the credit it deserves. i think i am leaving my comfort zone on that topic, so i will leave it at that.
‘broken household appliance national forest’ is juxtaposition maxed out. the soft with the hard the smooth with the sharp, nature/manmade. its beautiful and the best track on the album.
i can’t really sum up the whole album, i’ve struggled quite a bit with it. yes it is sad but it is a triumph, it’s quintessential kerrang yet seems ahead of its time. it finds its place both here and now; the path may be a confusing one, but at least there’s other people on it.
radio-cc 