Review of Greer’s “Big Smile” Album
uitar ensure that the track swells into a heavenly shoegaze haze. On ‘One in the Same’, frontman Josiah sings what we will soon come to realize are typically cryptic and eerie Greer lyrics, such as “Bury me deep and I’ll crawl inside / But the hole that you dug was two feet wide.” The song is also notable for the fifteen seconds of feedback at the end, which sound like a herd of velociraptors simultaneously hurting themselves on lego.
Everyone’s had enough of descriptions like ‘Weezer meets Nirvana’, but ‘Had Enough’ really does sound like Rivers Cuomo and Kurt Cobain did a collab and we’re just hearing about it. The video is a brilliant parody of peak 1993 Power Rangers. Everyone’s also had enough of ‘if x did y it would sound like z’, but if My Bloody Valentine did a theme tune for a TV breakfast show, it would sound like the 68 seconds-long ‘With Might of Worms’. ‘Miracle Fighting Red Baron’ appears to resume the Power Rangers theme, though after ten minutes of Wikipedia research, I’m none the wiser. All I know is that said track is so joyous and raucous, it makes ‘Buddy Holly’ sound as thrilling as a council tax bill.
Greer do quiet-loud very well. The first minute and a half of ‘Franken’ is pleasant strumming, with undefinable swirly noises in the background, then guitars dialed up to eleven gatecrash the campfire as Josiah laments, “And I want you to stay / But I think I’m dead for now.” Similarly, ‘1994’ is a woozy recollection of a character called ‘Mr 1994’, though it includes a sudden gear change – think of the piledriver guitar near the start of ‘Cherub Rock’ and double the jolt factor.
If Evan Dando was the frontman of Ride…oops, I’m doing it again. But seriously, the decision to change the vocal duties on ‘Test Virgin Opposites’ is an inspired one – chill delivery in intriguing contrast to the surrounding anthemic, tempo-changing squall. Talking of lemon heads…‘Fighter Pilot Eats A Lemon’ is an instrumental that contains no references to air combat or citrus fruit, but which does contain a lovely descending acoustic riff shrouded in shimmery sounds. ‘Demolition 9’ begins with warped and wavy acoustic strums, and the chorus of doom-laden oohs are absolutely apt for a track that has unsettling lyrics such as “I see the silence in their eyes / When I come to die inside your spine.”
Josiah returns to the mic on the incredible ‘She Knows’. It’s galaxies away from grunge – a bit Billy Joel, a lot Paul McCartney, though the yearning and range of Josiah’s voice is of a different realm. You will swear that you have heard this song before, such is its immediate and total brilliance. ‘Mugwump’ is both a Greer track and a person who likes to be politically independent. “Seems like I could never stay in line / And I’m not old but I feel that I’ll be fine,’ sings Josiah on a song that has the sort of dreamy winding-down feel that surely all penultimate album tracks should have.
And then we come to ‘Audio 77’, with Josiah again taking center stage. If ‘She Knows’ was the equivalent of bellowing from the rooftops, ‘Audio 77’ is the equivalent of going to the bottom of the garden and whispering to summon fairies from amongst the flowers. “Pleeee-eee-ee-ee-ease / Don’t get up to leave” are the last lyrics, and in the video for the track, Josiah gets up and leaves. Which is quite annoying, as by this point you’ll be wanting Big Smile to carry on for another thirteen songs.
Big Smile is out now via Epitaph Records.