I’ve never heard anything by the band Grin, but I did recently find out that their guitarist/songwriter, Nils Lofgren, is a well respected guitarist who has played with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, as well Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. That being said, as a guitar player I’m quite excited to hear what this band has to offer.
“Like Rain” has a bit of an airy quality to it, that features so soft guitar and piano for the intro that serves as rain of some sort. As the tune drops into the main part of the track, I’ve been blown away. That electric guitar is so tasty. Wow, instruments and layers keep getting added. I’m stoked to hear the rest of the album after this stunning introduction. I really dig the tone of the piano too.
“See What A Love Can Do” starts out kind of bluesy in a way. Wow, it’s kind of psychedelic in a way, but it’s super sick. The soundscape of the album is absolutely amazing. The vocals are super interesting in how they’re laid out, and there’s so much passion in them – absolutely noteworthy. Holy crap this song is absolutely amazing.
“Everybody’s Missin’ The Sun” – has a really rollicking sort of feel to its piano, and a totally different vibe to it in total. The acoustic guitar just chugging along with the percussion in the background in combination with the little slide-y twang of the electric guitar makes it feel like some old parlor saloon western rock and roll song. I’m three tracks in and absolutely blown away by this one.
“18 Faced Lover” starts out with an incredibly awesome bluesy electric guitar riff. This track reminds me of Led Zeppelin a bit, but it’s totally incomparable honestly – very unique. That guitar solo gets you really hanging on to the ride while the rhythm guitar keeps you churning around. The vocals have a great grit to them too, and the song builds on itself and really feels like it’s going somewhere.
“Outlaw” starts out with some studio commentary for this classic country rock tune I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the insane range in this album yet, but it’s absolutely 110% insane. And wow, that electric guitar. These five songs have me on the edge of my seat. It kind of has come Grateful Dead – “Candyman” vibes in my opinion. I have no idea how this band didn’t have more commercial success than they did. Wow, this song is basically crying into my ears, in an absolutely beautiful way.
“We All Sung Together” starts out like a feel good song after that emotional powerhouse. This song’s instrumentation is so awesome. I can’t use any words to aptly describe how awesome, interesting, creative, and unique it all sounds. I’m researching where I can get this album on vinyl right now; I can’t state how impressed I truly am.
The guitar intro to “If I Were a Song” is head-shakingly stunning. The layers used in this album is insane. That electric organ leading into the electric guitar dancing around the soundscape is so “what the heck is going on, this is freakin’ awesome”. Nils Lofgren is a name I won’t soon forget. The layering of the vocals is stunning. The electric guitar made me just smile, laugh, and shake my head in bewilderment.
“Take You To The Movies Tonight” is like an almost-bittersweet sounding acoustic piece that is expertly crafted in my opinion. Absolutely stunning tune, much like the rest of the album.
“Direction” is a definite vibe change compared to the last track, but the guitars absolutely keep blowing me away. The percussion in this one is super interesting too. The song keeps setting up expectations of sorts and doing what is expected in a manner of speaking, but definitely not when or the way you’re expecting it to. The vinyl record for album is going for about $10 on Discogs right now, and honestly it’s worth every penny. I’d buy it now, but I want to check my local shops first, just in case. The force behind this song is absolutely amazing – totally brilliant.
“Pioneer Mary” has a southwestern rock sort of vibe, though more south than west in my opinion, and truly amazing. It turns out that Neil Young sings harmony vocals on this track as well as on the tune “Outlaw”. Honestly it’s hard to even try to use words to talk about this album – in my opinion, it’s that good. I’m in a total daze listening to this one. It turns out the majority of the album was recorded by only three people: Nils Lofgren on guitars, keyboards, and vocals, Bob Berberich on drums and vocals, and Bob Gordon on bass and vocals.
“Open Wide” is on now, and it feels like the album has building towards a grand finale behind the scenes for a while now. This song feels like the end of the album is nearing, and it originally ended on the next track, but two more tracks were added in the 2005 reissue. It’s honestly just a great song that feels like is building momentum going into the final track.
“I Had Too Much (Miss Dazi)” starts out with some awesome drum beats and what sounds like a classic hard rock guitar riff and some super interesting parlor type dancing piano notes, that all drop together with the vocals to make a classic hard blues rock tune that feels like is using a lot of that momentum built up from the last track. Wow that guitar is insane, and the piano. Wow. The energy in the track is at another level.
“Nobody” starts out using that same momentum built up in the last two tracks, just sort of playing around with it at this point. This song is a variation of the one you can hear on Crazy Horse’s album, Crazy Horse (1971), as it was written by Nils Lofgren. That guitar is just awesome. The last few tracks had me so much on the edge of my seat, near the end of this one, it started to slowly let go of momentum as if it were coming to an end.
“Sing For Happiness” is another bittersweet sounding southern rock song that sounds like a natural conclusion to the album. It really tugs on the heartstrings as the song culminates to a gospel-like conclusion.
This album is definitely one of my favorites of 2020 so far. It’s a must listen for classic rock fans, and I can’t believe its seeming lack of commercial success. It was a great way to spend 48 minutes.
-A