John Grant

With a fourth solo album having just dropped and his 50th birthday celebrations behind him, John Grant kicked off the UK leg of his latest tour in style at The Brighton Dome. John arrived at The Prince Regent's former stable block from Iceland buoyed by the positive reception to his latest creation and the excited anticipation of the sell-out crowd. He and his band (including a very special percussionist!) were clearly very happy to be back in Brighton at the start of their tour, a decision John explained as "good routing".

Grant's latest album 'Love Is Magic' took centre stage for much of the night with eight out the ten tracks from the album being showcased throughout the nineteen track set. After walking on-stage to enthusiastic applause, JG started the evening with theatrical aplomb as he set about 'Tempest'. His vocals were immediately captivating and the reproduction of the electro-infused soundtrack was astonishingly good. The slower balladic notes gave way to his latest album's title track as the more upbeat, almost pop tones and sing-a-long chorus of 'Love Is Magic' kicked in.

The third of John's songs was a very early set highlight. His previous album's masterpiece 'Grey Tickles, Black Pressure' saw John sat at the keys and in fine voice as he set about delivering a brilliant rendition of the track. Hearing the song performed live gave it even more gravitas and listening to him sing 'and I'm supposed to believe that there's some guy who'll take the pain away, there are children who have cancer, so all bets are off, I can't compete with that' was devastatingly effective. Grant then lightened the mood with tales of riding 130mph coasters in the heat of Ohio before breaking into the ever more threatening musings of 'Global Warming'.

Continue reading: John Grant - Brighton Dome 29.10.2018 Live Review

With three critically acclaimed albums behind him as a solo artist, the quality of the back-catalogue of the once-upon-a-time Czar, John Grant, is building to be the one of the most impressive set of albums released in the recent past. Given that it was touch and go as to whether we'd ever be treated to Grant's deeply personal outpourings and lyrical genius again after The Czars split, it is our - and music's - overall gain that Grant battled his demons and was persuaded to record his own material.

His latest record 'Love Is Magic' coincides nicely with Grant having recently joined the semicentennial club. The fifty years young JG is in fine voice sharing wonderfully captured anecdotal tales and dropping in plenty of his dryly observed wry wit along the way. However, John also seems to have gone down the kitchen-sink-and-all route. 'Love Is Magic' feels more like an all you can eat carvery than a fine dining experience. It has simultaneously everything and, at times, that's too much.

Conflicted; adjective (after verb) Confused or worried because you cannot choose between very different ideas, feelings, beliefs, and do not know what to do or believe.

Continue reading: John Grant - Love Is Magic Album Review

After setting the bar higher than any of his contemporaries with his first two solo albums, 'Queen Of Denmark' and 'Pale Green Ghosts', former Czars man John Grant returns with his third solo album proper. Having garnered more critical acclaim than most musicians dream of in a lifetime, the weight of expectation on John Grant's latest release 'Grey Tickles, Black Pressure' was not unsubstantial. Thankfully, his move to Iceland, bleak barely lit winter days, a foray into Eurovision composition and a seemingly more confident demeanour have not diminished his ability to craft and convey a song.

The twelve songs on 'GT, BP' are bookended by a reading from Corinthians about love; serving as a very apt binder for the whole album. The onset of middle age (Grey Tickles) and nightmares (Black Pressure) that such a passage in one's life bring with it may have been the premise for John's latest work. However, it is once again his tenderness, understanding, humour, bloody minded frankness and above all, honesty that set his songs apart and generally above other formidable singer-songwriters. "I can't believe I missed New York during the 70's, I could have gotten a head start in the world of disease. I'm sure that I would have contracted every single solitary thing. There are children who have cancer so all bets are off, 'cause I can't compete with that", Grant sings on the superb title track.

John's latest album is once again littered with film, actor and singer references from Scanners to Ordinary People, Charlene Tilton to Geraldine Paige and Joan Biaz to Joan As Policewoman. All are encapsulated in terrific lyrics that are both cleverly observed and even more cleverly incorporated. John's lyrics have always been full of blackly comic moments and 'Grey Tickles' has more than it's fair share of sharp, biting, incendiary content and wit to blow you away. "You and Hitler ought to get together, you ought to learn to knit and wear matching sweaters, you ought to learn the finer points of decoupage, you ought to spend your weekends clearing out the garage" ('You & Him').

Continue reading: John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure Album Review

John Grant's last album Queen of Denmark represented an echo of a phenomenon rarely seen these days; a slow burning, word-of-mouth success that eventually piled up mentions in the 2010's release of the year polls despite the singer's obvious estrangement from the music industry's hype circus. What made its power and worthy recognition all the more heart-warming was that seldom had a record so filled with misplaced self-loathing wanted to be loved so much, it's the songs' visceral subject matter - inspired largely by growing up gay in hyper conservative Colorado - matched only by their gorgeously beige musical counter punches, a quilted subtlety courtesy of the singer's friends Midlake.

Finally then, everything it seemed was working out fine for the first time in Grant's hitherto emotional war zone of an adult life, until shortly after he was diagnosed with HIV, a fact that with typically mind blowing candour he announced on stage to a bewildered audience in 2011 at London's Meltdown festival. Now finding his life once more sent into a tailspin, it might have seemed in his darker moments that the vengeful god on Queen of Denmark's JC Hates Faggots was indeed having the last laugh after all.

If all of this has scared the crap out of you but you're still here, fear not. Recorded in his newly adopted home of Reykjavik with Gus Gus supremo Biggi Veira producing, Pale Green Ghosts is less knowingly confrontational that Grant's first album, as if the prejudiced demons he sought out on it have now been consigned to just memories. Musically it's a major departure as well, ditching the seventies FM saccharine tones and replacing them instead with retro synthesisers and the chillier ennui of late 20th century European clubbing.

Continue reading: John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts Album Review

John Grant is the former lead singer of Denver's gloomy but grand Czars, a band whom you probably haven't heard of. Queen of Denmark is his first solo record, one recorded in collaboration with Texans Midlake, who you absolutely should have heard of by now, and indeed taken to your hearts.

Continue reading: John Grant, Queen of Denmark Album Review