PREMIERE | Good Grief, 'Shake Your Faith'
Presenting the long-awaited debut from Liverpool’s Good Grief; press photo courtesy of the band.
These recent years have rocked us to the core of everything we once held near and dear. The laundry list of calamities and quagmires are too many to list, the changes and shifts on the global stage have taken place at a breakneck pace while we collectively have tried to find our footing within it all. The inextinguishable light has been the indefatigable resilience of the human spirit, the unlimited power that love wields, the humanities (beyond the clutches of rampant hegemony) and the awe-inspiring aura of the arts. The aesthetics of today reflect how these overarching events have impacted us, our perspectives, our lives, informing the universes we strive to build/rebuild with the crafts of ripping it up and starting again.
Liverpool band Good Grief understand these cycles all too well, as the trio presents the debut album Shake Your Faith that has been nearly a decade in the making. The trio of Will Fitzpatrick, Paul Abbott and Matiss Dale follow up years of singles with their biggest, loudest and brightest sounds for the entire world to witness. A record that was supposed to have arrived in 2020, the Liverpudlians deliver something to believe in once again. Something that is familiar. An album that arrives in our new era of reconstruction and restoration that commiserates with the universe's current condition and even makes it feel as if everything just might be okay after all.
Shake Your Faith is an unbridled cycle of power pop therapy. Think of it as the new Mersey Beat sound of today, Good Grief shakes some action with the shredding spectacular of "Metal Phase", surrendering to the throes of the heart's own chaotic desires on "How Can I Help Falling in Love?", as "High to Low" cranks up the energy beyond the extent of the dial with a perfect balance of the loud/quiet/loud artistic alchemy. Old school, art school memories factor in greatly on "Statement Brickwork" that rocks like the 80s DIY sounds of the 80s/90s sound of young Scotland, as "The Pony Remark" rolls with plenty of artful heart, strumming some emotional chords on the tragic beauty of "Dimension Jump".
The essence of 90s alternative cadences can be heard and felt on the jubilant "New Town", rocking steady with an anthem of awareness and alertness on "Line By Line", keeping the energy churning and burning brilliantly on the brash and witty bravado of "The Oldest Things on Earth". The penultimate track "Hatches" goes in all directions from slacker pop vibes, to a SoCal garage post-grunge and everything in between and beyond as Shake Your Faith concludes with a cut that sounds like a lo-fi demo that brings it all home with a whole lotta heart and hope. Good Grief present a full length guaranteed to keep the embers burning bright for our modern times that often feels like a night with no end and no moonlight in sight.
Good Grief’s own Will Fitzpatrick and Paul Abbott kindly provided us with the following excusive track-by-track breakdown:
“Metal Phase”
Will: Writing for an album means you’ve always got song placement in the back of your mind. This one was always earmarked to open the album; something about it just felt appropriately inviting. Lyric-wise, it’s about resilience, among other things, all tied up with a gag about someone sticking with you during your most regrettable phases. For the record though, while I’ll always gravitate to fuzzier sounds first and foremost, I sincerely love plenty of heavy metal. I regret nothing!
“How Can I Help Falling In Love?”
Will: One of the record’s recurring influences turned out to be the New York school of poets, after I spent a few years devouring biographies and critical texts. The hook references a James Schuyler line concerning his childlike wonder at the Christmas period, despite the cynical assault of rampant commercialism (wonder what he’d make of the festive period in the twenty-first century?). And then once you’ve got a line like that, it’s hard not to think of Elvis. Despite the title, though, this album offers a no-love-song guarantee.
“High To Low”
Paul: An exercise in trying to adapt a film version of a book into a song. Kurosawa’s High And Low was based on an Ed McBain novel called King’s Ransom and this song is distilling down some of the themes from both ― us against them, rich against poor ― as well as using some of the imagery from the movie to give the lyrics a surreal quality.
”Statement Brickwork”
Will: When I was a kid, my art teacher took the whole class on an unscheduled trip beyond the school grounds, to sketch the ornate brickwork on the early twentieth century terraced houses on the nearby streets. I always wondered how the residents felt about their houses being surrounded by 30 bored-looking 12-year-olds, armed with sketchpads and pencils. Anyway, it sowed the seeds for another obsession of mine, eventually leading to this song. I wanted it to have a slower groove than our earlier, more obviously punk-informed stuff ― did it work? You tell me.
“The Pony Remark”
Will: Lyrically, this is where Seinfeld and the novelist David Grossman meet thanks to a weird coincidence of equine phraseology. Basically, the song is about the preoccupation with the tortured artist that was once so prevalent in music writing, and how that probably isn’t such a healthy thing to encourage after all. It’s also set to a tune that I just love playing ― you’re not supposed to have favorite children, but this is certainly one of the songs I enjoy most on Shake Your Faith.
“Dimension Jump”
Will: Our first slow song! We learned a lot about weight and space putting this one together, which felt pretty good after years of thrashing away at pacier numbers. As for the lyrics…sometimes horrible, tragic things happen for which you have no explanation, and you know asking questions can only take you down paths you’ll wish you’d avoided. The spaciousness of this song gave me a lot of room to think about a dear friend ― it was difficult to write, but I’m glad it’s there.
“New Town”
Will: The guitar line on this song is one of my favorite things to play on the whole album, and there’s a bounce to the whole thing that just seems to get us all going. I guess it’s a weirdly structured song overall, but it was one of those songs that comes together super-quickly in the practice space ― when you’re all in sync and the pieces all just fall together.
“Line By Line”
Paul: Originally written as a song about listening to your body when it’s telling you there’s something wrong, it turned into a bit of a rant about the un-deserving sorts who force their way to the top without thinking what’ll happen when it all comes crashing down around them. All done with a Heartbreakers-esque riff and our first attempt at block vocal harmonies.
Power pop pub bops with Good Grief; press photo courtesy of the band.
“The Oldest Things On Earth”
Will: Another song influenced by those pesky New York poets. I’ve bought so many copies of Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems for friends over the years, I probably qualify for some sort of commission at this stage. I’d actually had the riff for this one floating around since I was 17 and absolutely obsessed with Sebadoh ― just waiting for the right song, I guess. It doesn’t really sound like Sebadoh at all, but it always makes me want to listen to III again. Thanks, nostalgia!
“Hatches”
Will: We’ve been closing sets with this song for a while now. The coda feels like it took on a life of its own a long time ago ― there’s a structure, but it channels itself differently every time. I’d been worried about capturing that energy in the studio but our producer Ste Cole really got the best out of us. The lyrics reference the end of The Empire Strikes Back and other films that make up the middle of trilogies. Something about their lack of real resolution just resonated with me, so even though it’s our official closer, it couldn’t possibly have been the final song on the record. Hence…
“Kissing Through Curtains”
Will: A relatively lo-fi acoustic number to properly close things out, like a funny little demo that kicks in when the record’s stopped playing. This is the only song we recorded ourselves, away from Ste’s studio, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Despite sounding like a solo number, more or less, it became a real collaborative effort. I’m my own worst critic, but I’m pretty proud of how we put this song together.
Good Grief’s debut album Shake Your Faith will be available March 18 via HHBTM (US) and Everything Sucks Music (UK/Europe).
Album cover art courtesy of Paul Rafferty.