Grand Child

For Andy Lane creativity seems to be as much of a necessity as air or water. His unsigned and highly underrated indie pop band Driver F has turned heads and won hearts with their win-at-all-cost live show and catchy as fuck hook-laced album Chase the White Whale. Calling them anything but a Do-It Yourself success would be be selling their achievements short. Yet like most artists walking the line of genius in their craft, one project and one style would not be enough to leave Lane satisfied or contained. His need for expression is bigger than one soapbox will allow. Hence, the birth of Grand Child, Lane’s “anti-pop” project.

Split into two unique EP’s rather than one full length album, Lane manages to spread his worth as far as possible. That worth is noticeably desirable throughout the extent of My Legs Are In The Water, the first of the two cuts. With a dated throwback sound, placed on the calendar nowhere near 2010, the album manages to reminds me of the protest singers of the 1960s while still managing to be fresh and modern enough to be marketable to indie snobs and hipster elitists. Take “Do You Hear The Wind,”the album’s opener, as a textbook example of the unique signatures of the project. Starting out as a simple singer-songwriter tune, the track shifts drastically after two verses into a spoken word poetry session, very similar to what I remember listening to in kindergarten class as we played our auto-harps to the slide show on the projector at the front of the room. The brilliance of this slant lies in how at ease the shifts seem. Though fairly effortless for the listener to follow, the structure still remains complicated and uncharted as it refuses to follow the blueprint of popular music, as noted in the songs end sequence of patterned noise.

This trend of divergence from the norm continues into the album’s sophomore track, “ Magic Things.” Resting somewhere in the area of Elliot Smith and Ugly Casanova if you took a sharp left at Sufjan Stevens‘ banjo and piano usage, the song gathers the beauty of its strings and drums combo to breaks up the commonality of the acoustic guitar. The song also manages to flawlessly build within the itself. It shifts drastically at the one minute and forty-five second mark, progressing upward into a frenzy of indie -bluegrass jamming which ends as suddenly as it starts.

“Shout,” the EPs third track, is probably the most listener-friendly single on the five part collection. With verses standing alone over acoustic guitar and light strings build into a simple and catchy two line chorus. The song doesn’t jump around much, shifting only in the musical interludes between verses. However, the second interlude stands out beautifully as colorful piano is added over the previously introduced string solo. While not my favorite track on the album, I could certainly see “Shout” being the crossover track that captures the ears of those who might not otherwise be listening.

The album’s second to last track, “Make Me High,” features a brilliant banjo and harmonic combo not found anywhere else on the album. It’s catchy repetitive drum and string structures stand out against harmony vocals, effectively flowing hauntingly throughout the song. The use off backing vocals strikes me as interesting due to the origin of their structure. Set up in a manner that one might hear in a screaming type band like Taking Back Sunday (think Adam Lazzara backed by John Nolan), this indie-country song taps into that lead singer, backing singer echoing structure, simply slowing it down to the proper tempo. This is a perfect example to Lane’s knowledge of music and abilities to shift genres, bending them into his needs.

“Birds,” the album’s closing track, is stacked with beautiful harmony vocals placed smoothly over cello and guitar. The track manages to capture a bit of Lane’s charm, as he hums carelessly with the riffs of the song and speaks right to his listeners. The vocals over the song are top notch, closing the flawlessly constructed EP as strongly as it started. Honestly, if this opening release is any indication of what is ahead for Andy Lane and Grand Child, I expect a long an adventurous career. As long as he continues releasing wonderful albums like this one, I know I’ll do anything I can do to push him there.

Because honestly, the spotlight is where this band deserves to be.

5 out of 5 stars

Track Listing:
1. Do You Hear The Wind
2. Magic Things
3. Shout!
4. Make Me High
5. Birds - Josh Hammond - Popwreckoning.com