Lo-fi, sad, acoustic indie ballads that will win over college kids, as well as the older/noisier post-grads who flock to Built To Spill and Modest Mouse shows.
Grade, in all of its predictable sing-scream/loud-soft/we-can’t-play-anything-other-than-emo-chords, has opened up its high school photo album for all to see.
Every song seems to burst with wall-of-guitars, yet the lo-fi (roughly recorded and sung with wild abandon) vocal melodies beneath make it all seem accessible.
This isn’t the kind of collection that will make your brain bulge at every chord change. It has its dirges, digressions and self-indulgent moments and minutes.
Unlike shoegazer bands that use walls of distortion to enunciate visceral dreaminess, this band’s bopping beats and quiet arpeggios evoke the same experience.