Blu Wav

Grandaddy

Released on 2/16/24 by Dangerbird Records
Main artists: Grandaddy
Genre: Alternative & Indie

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If you're a fan of Grandaddy, you know not to hold your breath. In 2000, The Sophtware Slump—a prescient, lo-fi forecast of humanity's problems with technology—earned Jason Lytle's Modesto, California, band a well-deserved spotlight. But they split up in 2006, months before the release of Just Like the Fambly Cat, over financial frustrations. Grandaddy reunited in 2017 for Last Place, a lyrical account of Lytle's divorce, then stopped touring and recording after the death of longtime bassist Kevin Garcia. Now Grandaddy is back, but only time will tell if it's a fleeting return.

Blu Wav's title is a mash-up of bluegrass and new wave, though that doesn't really capture the album's vibe. Inspired by listening to Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz" while driving across the Nevada desert, Lytle determined to borrow the sweet sway of bluegrass waltz and cocoon it in synth and fuzzy electronics. Waltz time is prominent on the record, as is pedal steel—to poignant effect on "Long As I'm Not the One," which reaches for moments of pomp majesty, and "You're Going to Be Fine and I'm Going to Hell," an alt-country meditation that opens up to a lush ELO-esque dreamscape. Loss and loneliness, constant companions in Lytle's music, are all over the place. "Ducky, Boris and Dart" is a plush farewell. "On a Train or a Bus" is a dreamy, sad-bastard ballad about love gone away. "Jukebox App," an easy-amble waltz, finds Lytle deliriously wallowing in misery and threatening to play "all our songs" after spotting an ex with a new guy. "Silhouette of the flame that died/ Your hair lit up by that neon light/ You and some dude knocking back the shots/ While I'm out here in the parking lot," he sighs/sings, fuzzed-out synth plucking the heartstrings.

Paired with steel guitar, "Watercooler" proves Lytle can craft a heart-wrenched melody with all the pop aspirations and gimlet-eyed lyrics of Fountains of Wayne. "And you cry in the bathroom stall," he sets the scene, "Cuz I won't call although I know you hurt." ("Most of my relationships have involved girls who worked in office settings," Lytle has said. "This song is about the end of one, or perhaps a few, of those relationships.) When it all gets to be too much, he returns to the honey-sweet promise of "Cabin In My Mind": "There's a safe and loving glow/ Beyond the curve where you once were." There are several lovely sketches of songs—fleeting thoughts—including spacey "Let's Put This Pinto on the Moon" and satisfying outro "Blu Wav Buh Bye," that leave you wanting more. But as Lytle sings on the beautiful, forward-looking "Nothin' To Lose," "Cut and run toward the sun/ Our work here's done." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

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Blu Wav

Grandaddy

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