John Grant is not an easy artist to love, a composer and singer with personality and that bit of imprudence that disturbs the waters until they become impassable.
Fourteen years have passed since the innovative intuitions of “Queen Of Denmark”, the first solo album after the end of the adventure with the Czars. A period that Grant spent struggling with the ghosts of the past, only to find the comfort of awareness and maturity with the album “Boy From Michigan”.
The sixth album “The Art Of The Lie” takes up and expands the lyrical and musical density of the previous one, establishing a new point of arrival, or departure, for the American musician. John Grant proves skilled in choosing the partner of his projects: after Cate Le Bon it’s up to Ivor Guest to direct, a choice determined by the passion shared by John and Ivor for Brigitte Fontaine, and it is the producer who is responsible for the elegant balance between chamber-folk and electronics.
Bewilderment, loss of family affection and racist and homophobic regurgitations are the themes of the author’s most successful and cohesive project. Even the frequent use of the vocoder takes on a very different connotation from the purely musical one: John Grant’s filtered voice does not seem to belong to that technological future that the use of the vocoder evokes, but rather to a melancholy echo of a past that has now disappeared.
Even the anticipation entrusted to the single “It’s A Bitch” and the similar funky impulses of “All That School For Nothing” is partly misleading: the lyrics are not only sharp and highly political, but much more verbose and complex than modern simplification mainstream.
The excellent triptych formed by “Marbles”, “Father” and “Mother And Son” is the best expressed by the singer-songwriter after his acclaimed debut. The dark textures of synths and drum machines and the caressing melody of “Marbles” create an imaginary bridge between past and present. “Father” forcefully introduces controversial family relationships with a memorable melody and a use of electronics that lulls and shatters its romantic nature. “Mother And Son” not only continues the painful analysis of feelings towards parents, but unfolds with a multiplicity of seductive harmonies that act as a contrast to the darkness of the lyrics.
John Grant’s music is contained in this continuous contrast between sparkling melodies and restless lyrics. “The Art Of The Lie” ultimately does not differ from what the American musician has produced so far, but undeniably this is one of the most convincing sets: “The Child Catcher” and “Meek AF” are further examples of this in a record that slowly fades slowly towards silence (“Zeitgeist”). These eleven new songs are a profound reflection on the transience of affections, but also the richest in humor and disenchantment of the American musician.
06/19/2024
