Album Reviews

On their first new album since 2006’s “Just Like The Fambly Cat”, Grandaddy isn’t about reinventing their sound. They pick up right where they left off a decade ago, probably surprised their rickety synths and ramshackle guitars were still functional. It makes “Last Place” an instantly familiar album as well as a nostalgic throwback. Even Jed the alcoholic humanoid makes a comeback on “Jed The 4^th”.

Is that a good thing? It can be. Songs like opening track “Way We Won’t” and the subsequent combo that is “Brush With The Wild” and “Evermore”, take you right back to 1997. Vintage Grandaddy. Which means slacker rock with echoes from bands like Sparklehorse, Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev hovering around. Meanwhile, a song like “Chek Injin” is like listening to Pavement gone punk rock… upbeat and unpredictable. And pretty damn good.

Which brings us to the album’s second half with cuts like “I Don’t Wanna Live Here Anymore” and “That’s What You Get For Gettin’ Out of Bed”, two songs that sound exactly like what their titles hint at and which are pleasant enough, but kinda forgettable. Luckily, things pick up again at the end with “A Lost Machine”, which reaches for the stars like the hauntingly beautiful “He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot” did back in 2000. , and the stripped down “Songbird Son”, which has chief Grandaddy Jason Lyttle seeing us out in the same way he has been doing since the band came to a halt in 2006… solo.

Track listing:

1. Way We Won't
2. Brush with the Wild
3. Evermore
4. Oh She Deleter :(
5. The Boat Is in the Barn
6. Chek Injin
7. I Don't Wanna Live Here Anymore
8. That's What You Get for Gettin' Outta Bed
9. This Is the Part
10. Jed the 4th
11. A Lost Machine
12. Songbird Son