Now it's on (Grandaddy) (LP 2637 - 2638)

Grandaddy  The Broken Down Comforter Collection (CD, Bjg Cat Records, 1999) **

Grandaddy  Sumday (Vinyl, V2 Records, 2003) **** 

Genre: Alt-rock

Places I remember: Shona Wilding collection for the CD, Marbecks Records for Sumday

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Now It's On (Sumday)

Gear costume: Kim You Bore Me To Death (...Collection)

Active compensatory factors: I heard the CD first, although I've had the vinyl record for ages but never played it. 

Roger was getting rid of his vinyl from the store and gave me a few albums. This was one of those, and I put it into the collection before heading off to the UK to live for a few years. When we returned to NZ I'd forgotten about Sumday, and so it languished in the G's until this blog review got around to it.

In the meantime, Shona's sister gave me her CD selection when Shona passed away. I listened briefly to The Broken Down Comforter Collection and didn't think much of it.  It's a combination of the tracks from the mini-album A Pretty Mess by This One Band and the EP Machines Are Not She. 

It's very experimental, sometimes willfully so, but there are some good songs on there, like Kim You Bore Me To Death and Wretched Songs.

Sumday is their third proper album, and it is amazingly good. Like a different band, even. The experimental impulse is reigned in and melodies win out. The Elliot Smith sound and new wave influences are clearly there but this is a distinct and focused sound all of their own.

So glad I persevered with Grandaddy! Sumday's time eventually came and it is quite lovely!

Where do they all belong? Grandaddy began as a band but has become centred around one guy - Jason Lytle. He's still going and releasing material under the Grandaddy banner.  Will have a look out for album 2 - The Sophtware Slump which critics seem to rave over, and reread the recent Mojo article on Jason Lytle.