Greg McDonald
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Greg McDonald

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"Q album review"

**** (4 stars)
The clever, touching Not The End Of The World is a superb piece of narrative songwriting. It tells wistfully of dormant passions briefly awakened in King’s Cross station by news that the “world ends noon today”, only to be soon quashed by an update saying they “read that wrong”. It’s just one of 10 melancholic treats from the ex-frontman of John Peel favourites The Dawn Parade. Strummed, string-swept and captivating, McDonald’s songs are studded with observational wit, as happy relating encounters with dragons as the downfall of crackheads. A debut redolent of Al Stewart at his poetic best, or perhaps even Leonard Cohen himself.
- Q


"Music Week tip of the week"

Tip of the week - McDonald movingly sings his oddball tales tinged with sadness; comedy and tragedy collide deliciously, and the closing Taxi is a haunted epic. - Music Week


"Room 13 album review"

A Top Quality Debut
Rated 11 out of 13

East Anglian wordsmith Greg McDonald’s debut solo album ‘Stranger at the Door’ is a gripping affair that mines into your brain and demands an emotional response. Sometimes they simply feel melancholy, for example tearjerker ‘The Firedrake’, which melts you with its delicacy; other times the tunes are simply heart-warming odes to emotions.

Every song feels as ambitious as the next ‘Stranger at the Door’ addresses illegal immigration, while ‘Not The End of the World’ is as brave as to lyricise the apocalypse itself. Whether this is all successful is another question, as the latter at least feels slightly overwhelmed by its florid instrumentation but it’s still heartfelt enough to cause a shiver in your spine.

Single, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ is probably as good a point as any to come to Greg’s work; it’s a sweet, balmy love song with a lulling melody and sweet liaisons between male and female vocals. ‘Cheap Flight To Paradise’ adapts a traditional tune into a menacing, doom-laden fiery folk ballad with a sparkling mix of instruments.

The tunes are all glorious and beautifully well written ��" Greg boasts a winning position in New York’s International Songwriting Competition ��" but at some points the instrumental arrangements seem to drown the feelings out a little. Perhaps it’s because singer/songwriters usually pride themselves on simplicity of arrangement and we’re simply not used to the sumptuous array of keyboards, strings and guitars on offer. ‘The Children in the Forest’ for example, climaxes in a glorious whirlwind of stunning instruments and fluttering opera vocals.

‘Stranger at the Door’ is an album full of storytelling par excellence that charms with its beautiful songs. It’s one to muse over and get you dreaming on long, dark winter nights when you need someone to whisper words in your ear. A mesmerising and delightful collection of tunes.
- Room 13


"Moving Tone album review"

East Anglian Greg McDonald has earned much praise for his songwriting and for his performances with The Dawn Parade. Stranger At The Door is his first album since going solo last year. Produced by Sam Inglis, this is an assured work which confirms Greg McDonald as a singer-songwriter of class, very much in the Leonard Cohen/Scott Walker vein. His political affinities are also evident: ‘Kopyleft Greg McDonald 2008. All rights reversed. Unauthorised lending, copying, broadcasting and generally taking things into your own hands is encouraged.' The album was made in ‘Free Romsey'.

Commanding vocals, rich instrumental arrangements and enigmatically poetic lyrics are the crucial ingredients in this territory: Stranger At The Door possesses each of these. This album succeeds completely in its intentions. If you're looking for the new Leonard Cohen, here he is.
- Moving Tone


"R*E*P*E*A*T* album review"

I know I don't normally admit it, and would normally have anyone's knees sliced off with a double bass drum pedal for suggesting it, but sitting in soggy Swansea many miles from Cambridge I feel safe enough to come clean : I do occasionally get things wrong.
I'll pause a while for you to recover from the shock, picking yourself off the floor.
One such instance could be The Dawn Parade. When they first get in touch with me, I wasn't totally convinced - the articulate stadium pretensions of frontman Greg McDonald, talking it like Richey Manic, walking it like Morrissey and producing reams of epic indie rock lyrics that somehow were more Springsteen than banal Brit pop, seemed to sit uneasily with the reality of watching his band (then called The Hip Down) play to 6 punters, one soundman and a lost dog in a tiny pub back room.
And then, posthumously, I put out the best of the Dawn Parade album and find, in the ensnaring sweeps and frustrated longings , that it is one of the albums of the decade, and certainly one of the best things ever to be released on R*E*P*E*A*T Records, and I wish I'd cottoned on sooner.
Perhaps the same will be true of 'Stranger at the Door', Greg's first solo release, which, despite his attempts to reinvent himself "via acoustic folk, ambient electro, cuatros and indie guitars", is still defiantly and definitely a Greg McDonald record - those stirring lyrics, that indecipherable pining, that unerring ear for a good tune all remain to charm and tease the great and the good. His subject matter may now range from illegal immigration to Spanish murders, madness and the end of the world, his influences may have grown to include the likes Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, but these are all still songs tackled in what should be hitherto known as GMW, The Greg McDonald Way.
It is a tribute to Greg that his voice is so much his own, that I can say the above of an album that is very different from the Dawn Parade. And when I say his 'voice' I don't mean his singing voice, I mean his way of expressing himself, a way that encapsulates beauty, poetry, wistfulness, tragedy and a tune your mum can whistle along to, all at once. He is one of very few people I know whose artistic interpretation of the world (GMW) is instantly recognisable and easily enjoyable.
Enjoyable yes - and now I might be about to make another error of judgement, or more likely of taste? - although I appreciate the album, enjoy its tunes, applaud the instrumentation and admire the wordsmithery, I don't really feel that I'm ready for its laid back grooves, its Radio 2 friendliness, its general melodic easiness. I'm not ready to be so damned nice…
I guess it's just 'not really my thing.' Which is my problem, not its.
And I wouldn't mind betting that in ten years time, I'll perhaps realise I've made another of my rarely admitted mistakes.
I hope so.
- R*E*P*E*A*T*


"Dawn Parade album review"

The best debut of the year. Packed with sixteen beautiful Britpop gems, The Dawn Parade sails and soars on the strength of Greg McDonald's incredible songwriting and sweet, syrupy voice. Is it too early to start a reunion chant? - Rockit


"Dawn Parade album review"

Rhythm & Booze Rating 10/10

When Rhythm & Booze was a paper based zine I used to receive loads of CDs by indie rock bands, there were loads that just passed me by, countless CDs that were played a couple of times reviewed and then forgotten consigned to a dusty corner of the former R&B office. But for every lost and forgotten act there would be a group who would grab my attention and not let go, unfortuantly a number of those bands have since disappeared, I often wonder what ever happened to the likes of Crazyface, Anti Hero and so on, bands that provided me a many happy hour in front of the computer screen.

One of the band's back in those days that really seemed to speak to me were The Dawn Parade, a band that seemed to be on the verge of something big, a band who released a number of singles that sat proudly on my hi-fi for what seemed like an entire age.
The Bury St Edmunds based band originally formed back in 2001 and released the stunning and memorable indie rock anthem Good Luck Olivia which instantly attracted the attention of John Peel and Steve Lamacq who championed the band on Radio One. The group played thier first tour (with fellow Rhythm & Booze favourites Miss Black America) in 2002 and from their it seemed that the world should have been their oyster. The band released their second single on indie record label R*E*P*E*A*T* and amassed a number of gigs all over the UK and further afield even tapping into the American market.

Next the group recored their first session for the John Peel show and performed a number of showcase gigs for Sony Records. Unfortuantly this is where the story seems to sour, the band wore themselves into the ground and the band imploded. The band tried to regroup with a new line-up, they decamped to Wales to record their debut album with the help of Radiohead producer Chris Brown, who helped the band develop their sound from the rauccous guitar rock of their early singles to an epic string laden sound that oozed with emotion, but even then they weren't able to shake the tags of band who blew it in 2003 and they eventually changed their name to The Visions, the newly named band received loads of great press but the band hated the compromise and they eventually decided to call it a day.

Former record label R*E*P*E*A*T* desperately tried to persuade the band to release some kind of compilation to sum up the history of The Dawn Parade and after loads of discussion it was decided that they would release an eighty minute CD that comprised of the singles, Peel sessions and their never released album.

If you never got the chance to hear The Dawn Parade I would urge you to invest in this album right away, this is set to be a cult classic for anyone in the know. The CD is top and tailed by two versions of Good Luck Olivia, the first being the single version whilst the CD's finale is a feedback drenched tour de force live version taken from their Peel session, the song has always been a favourite of mine and to hear the two constrasting version is a real joy, the live version is simply breathtaking and I can only wish I had caught the band live.

Elsewhere you get served up with the likes of the abbrasive Hole In My Heart, Morrissey's Tongue and the stunning and emotional Wider Than The January Skies, a song that almost brought one NME journalist to tears. Each of the seventeen tracks on here are simply incredible, they have everything from drama to bombastic explosions of noise. The lyrics pull at the heartstrings and paint a vivid and engaging picture of everyday life, the stories spun are captivating and you find yourself transported to "A country road in the heart of the summer".

It seems a great injustice when you listen back to the tracks on here and realise that The Dawn Parade never became household names and that we're not likely to hear anything more from the band, but at least we have this CD to saviour.

Rhythm & Booze Rating 10
- Rhythm and Booze


Discography

Discography:

Albums:

Stranger at the Door
CD Album
Available 26th October 2008 from www.gregmcdonald.co.uk and i-Tunes
Released 2008
Sugartown Records
The uncompromising semi-acoustic debut album, featuring new single Dead Man’s Hand
Tracklisting: 1. Stranger at the Door 2. The Other Side 3. Not the End of the World 4. Dead Man’s Hand 5. The Firedrake 6. Cheap Flight to Paradise 7. Fort 8. You’re in my Blood 9. The Children in the Forest 10. Taxi

The Dawn Parade
CD Album
Available from www.repeatfanzine.co.uk and i-Tunes
Released 2006
R*E*P*E*A*T* Records
17 track best-of The Dawn Parade featuring the complete debut album produced by Chris Brown (Radiohead / Muse), Rolling Stone Single of the Year Hole in my Heart, and tracks from the Peel sessions
Tracklisting: 1. Good Luck Olivia 2. Hole in My Heart 3. Morrissey’s Tongue 4. Wider than the January Skies 5. The Passion 6. The Dark Stuff 7. Cambridge Girl 8. Into the Nightlife 9. The Craving 10. Salt and Vinegar Lips 11. Caffeine Row 12. Strung Out On Nowhere 13. Some Desperate Beat 14. Look Ma I’m a Soldier 15. The Underground 16. The Fortune Line 17. Good Luck Olivia (live Peel session)

Compilations:

Keep Britain Tidy
Love Music Hate Racism compilation featuring British indie acts including William, We Start Fires, Ten City Nation, Nebraska, Dexy and Attilla the Stockbroker
CD Album
Available from www.repeatfanzine.co.uk
Released 2008
R*E*P*E*A*T* Records

Singles and EPs:

The Underground
CD single
Sold out
Released 2004
Sugartown Records

Caffeine Row
CD single
Sold out
Released 2003
Sugartown Records

Electric Fence Your Gentleness
CD EP
Sold out
Released 2002
R*E*P*E*A*T* Records

Good Luck Olivia
CD Single
Sold out
Released 2001
NYC Records

Photos

Bio

Greg’s debut album recently scored an unprecedented four-star review in Q (“captivating… redolent even of Leonard Cohen himself”), and made the Q Download Chart and a Word critics’ end of year poll. Other press plaudits include Rolling Stone (“poetic genius”), NME (“beautiful”), Music Week (“delicious”), and The Fly (“transcendent”) to name a few.

Tom Robinson, Steve Lamacaq, John Kennedy and Mark Radcliffe have played Greg’s songs on Radio 1, Radio 2, 6music and XFM. Greg has recorded sessions for Radio 1, 6music and XFM, performed on ITV and Channel 4, and won Single of the Year awards from Rolling Stone, and Nashville’s International Songwriting Competition.

Greg formed cult John Peel favourites The Dawn Parade while in his teens and fronted the band until going solo when they split in 2006. Greg has played at Texas’s South by South West Festival, Manchester’s In the City, and London Calling and alongside Carina Round, Chris TT, Robyn Hitchcock, Show of Hands, Joanna and the Wolf, Friends of the Bride, Keane, Kings of Leon, British Sea Power and Frank Turner, and performed a UK acoustic tour for Fierce Panda Records, winning a cult following from Aldershot to Austin to Australia. Even Morrissey has recently been spotted at gigs.