GRACE EMILYS - The Outlaws And The Czar CD-EP

You see I have this lady friend I work with who knows the band and lives near the drummer, so she introduced me to the band - who I'd seen mentioned many a time recently but never actually seen - and she introduced me to the band and a decent bunch of people they turned out to be, so I said I'd check them out live as soon as I could, but in the meantime, they'd pass their CD onto my friend for me to review - "this had better be good", I thought, "or it could be the quickest band association known to man"!
The band are from Dundee and I'll bet you won't bat an eyelid to hear that it not only is unlike any other band around in Dundee right now (what an aamzing city we live in where music's concerned!!) but it's actually really rather good.
A 5 track affair, the EP opens with "Be Bold Be Brave" that starts with a fats and furious skiffle-mettes-rockabilly rhythm as the lightning fast vocals and adjoining vocal harmonies speed through the song as the twangy guitar and driving rhythms surge ahead. There's a cyclical guitar riff surrounding a cascade of vocals as they dive and soar, the lead voice in a kind of impassioned mid-high register of a style, while the harmonies come and go with spot-on timing. It's the sort of track that worms its way into your head the more and more you lay it. Twisting and turning through many directions, the core of the track maintaisn its mood, while the track builds to this huge-sounding musical peak as peals of vocals and vocal harmonies ring out like Church Bells ona sunny Sunday morning - a really neat track well executed. "Down In Mexico" starts with lilting piano and distant guitar fx before the rolling rhythm provices echoey drums and tub-thumping bass as the strong yet wistful vocals relate the story-telling vocals in a slightly lower register, with a hook that flies around your brain refusing to come out, while the harmonies are piled on as the song accelerates and shades of Dexys Midnight Runners witht he folk element missing are heard in the pace and structure as the song becomes this jigging stream of lyrical dexterity and commercial sensibility. "Manifesto" is also performed at their, by now trademark, fast paced performance and this time we've got this amazing mix of U2, Deacon Blue, Billy Joel, Waterboys and punk going on in a song that is simply snesational, as it surges ahead with sparking and duelling lead vocals and vocal harmonies over a surging musical accompaniment from the guitars, bass and drums - short, snappy and straight to your heart and mind.
"Air" is a feast of light relief as the pace decelerates and this ballad begins with lush harmonies, but the mood soon breaks as the band fires up in jangly guitar fashion, the lead vocal suddnly breaking out in flames of passion then the harmonie drop it all back down to earth as the song flows throgh a smoothly languishing stream of grace, before it all erupts once more and the song takes off, once more deeply personal lyrics providing a strong focus for your attention, that more than takes your mind off the fact that it's a rare thing in the form of a nagging insistence of a song without an actual hook or chorus - truly sublime. The band end with "Little Sticks", and return to the way they strated only this time with added piano, and a bit like "The Rise-go-rockabilly" in its structure at times, but the band is always capable of inserting surprises and taking the song through moods and avenues that you could not have predicted. Verging on the almost chaotic, it nevertheless keeps things reigned in and the enjoyable stomp backs this mix of treated and raw lead vocals, solid harmonies and an ever accelerating structure, again, plenty of pseudo-hooks keeping it in your head and commanding your attention, the song delivered with intensity and feeling.
It's new, it's different, it's rooted in familiarity but it's been taken out of its shell into an altogether nu-era indie mainstream. As I said, the more you play it, the more you want to play it - strange, insistent, but excellently done.

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