The Beat Surrender

I’m a little surprised that Gramercy Arms have had such a low-key build up to the release of this album, i’ve just been on their MySpace page for a little bit more research and they’ve only had 10,000+ profile views, now that might dwarf some bands that are just starting out, but these bands don’t have the same illustrious past.

You see Gramercy Arms are made up of former members of Guided By Voices, Luna, Joan As Police Woman, The Dambuilders and Fuzzy and they were or in some cases still are pretty well respected underground bands. Either way though it’s here and as well as the afore mentioned group members they have also called on a cast of thousands to help out.

So on the album you get contributrions from Sarah Silverman, Lloyd Cole, Chris Brokaw, Joan Wasser and just about anybody else that has ever picked up an instrument within New York City. All of which sounds like an unholy mess of people and potential overkill if it hadn’t been managed and channelled so well. Quite who gets the credit for that i’m not sure, but the important thing is that the musical skills and power available has been beautifully harnessed.

Gramercy Arms the album isn’t the greatest album i’ve ever heard, it’s not the greatest i’ve heard this year, but it is bloody good, suffering only slightly as it tails off in the last couple of songs where it could have done with a rousing end to drag it over the finish line. Either way it should still be crossing that line with it’s chest pumped out and it’s head held high.

It isn’t a long album, weighing in at just over thirty minutes, with ten songs that vary in length between 2:18 and 3:36, what you get though are a combination of power pop tracks that have a hint of Americana about them, mixed with some glorious melody, but the overall feeling for me comes back in sound to me as Scotland rather than America.

If I was going to give you a referece point (which as it happens I am), then it would have to be Teenage Fanclub, tracks like Nothing I Can Do, Fakin’ and Since Last September, have a real feel of them about the tracks, not just in the jangly guitar and sunshine melody, but also the vocal harmony that you get. The one rack that veers away from this is the brilliant Shining Bright, a song that reminds me of the more poppy moments from Primal Scream.

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