Geordie Greep – The New Sound Review

This is not just a new sound. Geordie Greep has offered a new expression on his debut solo album, The New Sound. Intense characters whose representation and understanding of the world are so far removed from reality, that it opens the door to mockery. But with its salsa and Latin-influenced beat there is a sense of envy to those who live with pride before the fall. A brain switched off to the reality of a situation they find themselves bragging of. The New Sound is fuelled by those encounters, these stories passed on by those who wish to be the centre of attention in a room of strangers. Effective and beautiful in equal measure – and make no mistake, Greep has cracked a new route through popular music. It is not just a game of influences and experiences but a fulfilling, leading example of boundless creativity, captured here for a monumental album. 

Stop-start instrumentals may open The New Sound, but it is a non-stop masterclass from Greep. Blues is as its title would suggest, a modern swerve on the moody classics but with a kitchen sink drama style. Find yourself in these songs and feel embarrassed at relating to them. These characters are sick. Rotten to their core but bragging about what they perceive is an achievement. But they are not. Greep ruminates on the modern world and with his commentary comes some of his best writing. His multimedia understanding, a love of history and old film, brings out some moving tributes to oddities which may pass over those same characters who find themselves fulfilled with a lack of creative adventure. This is just Blues. There is a worry The New Sound could be too heavy for its own good, but any notions of panic are cast aside by Greep and the monumental backing musicians surrounding him. 

All of it takes from the love Greep has for salsa and Latin music. Much of this can be heard on the charming introduction to Terra, or in the bridge found through Holy, Holy. These form an exceptional, intimate bed for lyrical assertions of what we perceive as real beauty. You can float in the volcanic waters of the Sky Lagoon, eat whales on the coast of Oslo, and feel the high of intimacy with loved ones. These are the experiences we hold dear and, somehow, Greep has bottled those emotive passions up and presented them on his perfect first solo record. But this is the key to unlocking the strange characters within this piece. Holy, Holy, the album’s lead single, grips the passive sexualisation of the public space, the man on the prowl who believes he is a gift from the Almighty. These people exist. They are present in the world, and Greep experiences what his listeners do. Not contempt, not mockery, either, but a fascination with how they go about their day.  

From there it is all connected. Blues into Holy, Holy, these are the actions of passionless people. What is life without passion? His lead single has a man, presumably named Holy, begging and pleading, paying for what is a mere imitation of the fraction of joy which comes from sincere experience. We all know people like this. We may have found ourselves in situations charted by Greep on this new album, but with the benefit of hindsight and some introspective, heavy lifting, we find not regret or remorse but fascination in those who live this way. Instrumental bliss on title track The New Sound gives listeners a break from those experiences wandering through streets and instead shifts gear, a free-flowing and seemingly improvised powerhouse of a track. You can feel those salsa influences jutting out, the stylish percussion mixture, and the bright piano work, it all comes together with a real urgency. 

A new and gruff voice heard on Walk Up has the biting insight of those Greep is assessing. A “fuck you,” here, a failed attempt at convincing of happiness there, it pieces the other side of the horrors together. Through a War hands us over to the satisfaction of noise as a background for the imagination. We all have those songs, the noisy vibrations so well-known it can massage the creative pockets of your brain. Greep heads out on the streets and ends up with a salsa powerhouse of great war and devilish intent. With it all comes a fantastic layer of humour from his line delivery and the indifference to the extraordinary. From escorts bending their knees to make Holy look taller to the passiveness of a woman birthing the Antichrist, it all has a matter-of-fact sensibility to it, and it adds a hilarious layer to it all.  

A romanticism crashes through the latter half of The New Sound, made all the clearer by album closer If You Are But a Dream. A genuine achievement, a historic high which will no doubt be remembered as a remarkable experience. One of the greats. This is Greep not having to answer to contemporaries. It is his own work, unfiltered and refusing to capitulate under the stress of another artist with great ideas of their own. Such is the inevitability of a group with strong musicians. Greep hoped to reinvent how we engage music with The New Sound, and he is successful. There is enough intertextuality and style here to pick away at for years. But if you want to remain cloth-eared and keep clear of new meaning, the instrumental service is beautiful.  

The New Sound is a new experience. There may never be anything like this again. From the passionate Motorbike detailing the open road as a faux avenue to freedom to the specifics of our lust on Holy, Holy, Greep has captured a cultural mood without referencing the moments which would date The New Sound. It becomes a timeless experience. We will always experience sex, lust, hate. As If Waltz highlights the privilege of bribery in a way only Greep can. These are the lived-in experiences of other lives, observed and picked through by a man who reserves his contempt or envy for a straight, creatively liberated experience. Deep and well-moved writings which will cement Greep as one of the great lyricists. This is not hyperbole, this is awe. Beautiful from beginning to end, a true high and even a tear-jerker in the right places, in the uncomfortable spots where you recognise yourself or an old part of your life.