THE NEW SOUND
October 4th 2024 | Words: Ethan Clark | Label: Rough Trade Records
Geordie Greep’s solo debut is a chaotic yet masterful fusion of genres, painting absurd, satirical portraits of toxic masculinity with humor and flair.
Geordie Greep, one third of the noise rock trio Black Midi, has since the recent hiatus announcement of the trio released his debut solo album. A man once described as having an accent that is “geographically undefined” (a comically apt description), Greep has assembled a New Sound, being tonally and sonically unique: mixing together noise, samba, Latin jazz and his signature lyrical and vocal style to embark on a fantastical, satirical journey of horniness and the inherent ridiculousness of toxic masculinity.
For those unaware, Black Midi went into hiatus in August of 2024 with Greep’s solo album releasing on October 4th, 2024, which is astonishingly quick turnaround for such a dense and detailed album. The recording of this LP took place fairly spontaneously in Brazil while on tour, and while the band were still together, having worked with over 30 local session musicians to create the authentic mix of genres this album pulls from. The influences are clearly coming through in every track, yet it never becomes a pastiche of what it is taking, a New Sound.
This New Sound takes us on a journey through the ridiculousness of toxic masculinity and all that entails. Each track paints a character portrait of some depraved, horny man: whether it be the image of referring to yourself as Napoleon and wondering if you could pay a homeless person to follow you around with an accordion to play your theme (Blues) or wanting to live out a romance with a prostitute just an hour at a time (As if Waltz). There are multitudes encapsulated within this album and its characters; how they all act a certain way to cover their simple desire for things like companionship. This satirisation of this kind of man is a throughline that runs from the very first track all the way to its finale, it exaggerates thoughts or actions that men like this would have to a ridiculous extent creating an almost comedic aspect to the albums lyrical content.
"This New Sound takes us on a journey through the ridiculousness of toxic masculinity, exaggerating its absurdities to a comedic, satirical extreme."
The first single from the album. Holy, Holy is an exemplary track, indicative of what you’re going to expect from the rest of the album. the Black Midi influences open the track with a staccato guitar riff followed immediately by a guitar solo and a jazz inspired bassline; shortly after we’re greeted with Greep’s signature storytelling lyricism and a vaguely Tranquility and Car Alex Turner-esque (of Arctic Monkeys fame if you are somehow unaware) style of vocals. The title Holy, Holy is in direct opposition of the narrative of this song, a joke about this character who is having delusions of grandeur, believing he is some kind of player, all the while desperately trying to pay this woman to indulge him in his fantasies. He makes claims of having ‘had’ all the other women in the bar and that he’s known worldwide, ‘from the shores of Havana / to Moscow and Tokyo / in French Guyanese, in Cantonese / everyone knows my name’. Immediately following, he lists off all these instructions for this woman to follow, delivered vocally in an insecure way, punctuated with background vocals asking: ‘How much will that cost?’. As whole package, with the diverse instrumentation and fantastical lyrics, this track is exemplary of the album as a whole, with many different influences and styles cumulating into a beautiful mess of musicality and storytelling.
Greep himself stated that the final track of the album, a Frank Sinatra cover, is indicative of the album as a whole: If You Are But A Dream. Despite its difference in its lyrical content, it still plays with the desires that are buried beneath the satirical, toxic masculinity dressing; within this track we have a narrator that wants to remain in their dream world, where waking up means the end of a relationship. Within the context of the rest of the album it could be read as this narrator having an inkling of self-awareness, wanting to continue their delusions of grandeur; they want to stay in their mind where they pretend to be this braggadocious, larger than life figure ignoring their actual reality. This idea is conveyed through a simple love song, and this track can easily be interpreted this way too, conveying the simple things that these characters from across the album actually want, despite the ways they act.
All in all, this New Sound is an adventure through the multifaceted man that is Geordie Greep, taking on probably every influence he’s ever had and throwing into an album, and somehow, having it work phenomenally well. If you can’t tell I like it a lot and you should listen to it, hopefully these words have convinced you to do so. If not, well that’d just be a shame wouldn’t it?
