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Andy Palmer and Grub Street Writer:
Sometime Around
Released September 23, 2011
Tracklist:
01 – Grrr
02 – I Died Today
03 – Lawless
04 – Take It Down
05 – ...
06 – When History's Done
07 – Cy Ethan
08 – Cripplegate
09 – Won't Happen Again
Westminster, Colorado
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Album Review: Andy Palmer and Grub Street Writer 'Sometime Around'
Posted on November 15, 2011
If someone who has never heard “Sometime Around” asked me what Andy Palmer’s voice sounded like.... I think I would say a pirate. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow the guy managed to eat Blackbeard. But that’s all part of the greatness of it. Voices like this have not come to the forefront of the music scene since the likes of Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits, and it’s a great thing that they have started to come back. From the exotic flamenco style of “Cy Ethan”, to the melancholy “When History’s Done”, to the final farewell of “Won’t Happen Again”, the variety of styles is great and shows great musicianship: The band doesn’t need to play the same stuff over and over just to sound good.
Andy Palmer's voice stands out like gravel rolling with the sea on a windy day and yet it melts like butter with the other instruments going on, especially with the acoustic. The lyrics are awesome too. It does take a bit of listening harder than you normally would to catch all the words, but you can tell the words have meaning behind them. In short, it isn’t an “oh baby I love you” kind of album, it’s more complex than that, just as life is. The lyrics of some songs are actually pretty sketchy. This is probably because of Andy Palmer's job as a public attorney. Not the most squeaky clean of jobs, but great inspiration for writing songs.
The other front man of Grub Street Writer is Dan Kern. I guess you could say he’s the one that gives the music its folksy twang in some songs but can twist it around and make it lean more towards prog rock in other songs. Even the name of the band is great. I guess you could say it’s a little inside joke for us Londoners. Grub Street was a run down narrow road in the poverty stricken borough of Moorfields, London. It was home to starving artists, impoverished writers, prostitutes and what not. The band also refers to Grub Street in the song “Cripplegate” which was a road that cut through Grub Street.
Such awesomeness is difficult to find elsewhere. It seems Denver has produced a gem of a band, but not the shiny expensive stuff you see in those high class jewellery stores. It’s one of those uncut gems that’s been through the nose but worth just as much. Listen to the album damn it!
For more information on Andy Palmer and Grub Street Writer visit:
by Artemis Nikolakis
Click album cover to check out 'Sometime Around' on iTunes
