Albums of the Year Number 2: Queen of Denmark by John Grant When bands you know and love release a new album and it’s great, that’s lovely, but when someone comes from what feels like nowhere and releases an album this spectacular, that’s all the more special. In fact, John Grant hasn’t come from nowhere, and was the lead singer in The Czars for quite some years, and this history of songwriting is apparent across the album. He’s a man who knows his craft, who creates songs that show off his many talents, not least his beautiful voice, and whose lyrics have the assuredness and wit of someone who’s been in the business for some time. That said, this is still a debut album, one made with the backing of Midlake, who despite being, in my opinion, a bit pedestrian in their own right, have made every song on this album sparkle with a 70s era charm. The tone of the album is like Elton John at his most reflective, or a whole host of other 70s rockers. However, it’s a sound that Grant makes all his own, crafting an album like nothing else from this year. Where Dreams Go To Die (a song he dedicated to the Travelodge at Kings Cross at his Southbank gig earlier this year) is an achingly beautiful song, about, as is a theme of the album, lost, pointless, desperate love. An album about love going wrong, and feeling helpless and tragic might just be a horrendous self-indulgent and boring journey, but Grant’s sense of humour shines throughout. In Sigourney Weaver Grant compares his situation to a series of half-remembered characters from B-movies, and in Chicken Bones Grant’s anger at everyone in the world feels tempered by an almost oompah-style piano backing. For all of the humour, though, Queen of Denmark has a stunningly beautiful and serious underside. The painfully incisive track It’s Easier, is an unrelentingly honest insight into the end of a relationship Grant feels unworthy of, and Grant’s feelings of inadequacy are also brought to the fore in the darkly humuorous title track, which has the opening lines I wanted to change the world But I could not even change my underwear Grant shines across the album as being funny, witty, intelligent and self-aware, but also deeply troubled, and it makes for an album that’s amusing and often really fun, but with a undercurrent of desperation. Most of all though, it’s beautiful and intriguing and very nearly the best album released this year. Spotify link

Albums of the Year

Number 2: Queen of Denmark by John Grant

When bands you know and love release a new album and it’s great, that’s lovely, but when someone comes from what feels like nowhere and releases an album this spectacular, that’s all the more special.

In fact, John Grant hasn’t come from nowhere, and was the lead singer in The Czars for quite some years, and this history of songwriting is apparent across the album. He’s a man who knows his craft, who creates songs that show off his many talents, not least his beautiful voice, and whose lyrics have the assuredness and wit of someone who’s been in the business for some time.

That said, this is still a debut album, one made with the backing of Midlake, who despite being, in my opinion, a bit pedestrian in their own right, have made every song on this album sparkle with a 70s era charm. The tone of the album is like Elton John at his most reflective, or a whole host of other 70s rockers. However, it’s a sound that Grant makes all his own, crafting an album like nothing else from this year.

Where Dreams Go To Die (a song he dedicated to the Travelodge at Kings Cross at his Southbank gig earlier this year) is an achingly beautiful song, about, as is a theme of the album, lost, pointless, desperate love. An album about love going wrong, and feeling helpless and tragic might just be a horrendous self-indulgent and boring journey, but Grant’s sense of humour shines throughout. In Sigourney Weaver Grant compares his situation to a series of half-remembered characters from B-movies, and in Chicken Bones Grant’s anger at everyone in the world feels tempered by an almost oompah-style piano backing.

For all of the humour, though, Queen of Denmark has a stunningly beautiful and serious underside. The painfully incisive track It’s Easier, is an unrelentingly honest insight into the end of a relationship Grant feels unworthy of, and Grant’s feelings of inadequacy are also brought to the fore in the darkly humuorous title track, which has the opening lines

I wanted to change the world But I could not even change my underwear

Grant shines across the album as being funny, witty, intelligent and self-aware, but also deeply troubled, and it makes for an album that’s amusing and often really fun, but with a undercurrent of desperation.

Most of all though, it’s beautiful and intriguing and very nearly the best album released this year.

Spotify link

Chicken Bones by John Grant 

I’ve been in love with John Grant’s album since I heard it a few months ago. This video is a suitably batty accompaniment to one of my favourite tracks of his. 

Source: youtube.com