Everyone has a favorite band or singer they reckon is subject to criminal neglect. That John Grant’s effortlessly rich, expansive baritone"which comes couched in typically heartbreaking, lush melody on his debut solo LP the Queen of Denmark"hasn’t found a wider audience indeed drives his fans to consider a crime. But no longer. Because Queen of Denmark, following three undervalued studio albums (and one similar covers compilation) fronting The Czars, is so undeniably great that the world will surely listen.
It’s a record of gravitas and grace, of haunting melodies laced with raw emotional bleeding"one that Aquarium Drunkard has already declared, “a cult classic”. It asks why relationships are roulette and love is hell in a last-ditch attempt at self-improvement and atonement after a decade of alcohol and cocaine dependency. It’s not overstating the case to say"as John has himself in a recent issue of The Times of London"that he’s contemplated suicide. And yet there is redemption in the album’s exquisite grooves.
And on top, to further the album’s brilliance, Denton, Texas’ mightiest band Midlake back Grant on the record, contributing its ‘70s-style soft-rock know-how. Put simply, Queen of Denmark is the record Grant’s been waiting his whole life to make.
After The Czars, “I basically gave up,” Grant said. On music that is. Instead, Grant moved to New York, studied for his certificate in Russian medical interpreting (he’s a gifted linguist, speaking German and Spanish as well as Russian) waited tables - and rarely performed live, though supports to Midlake were among the few shows he did perform. And that was how he began to contemplate another record.
“We first heard The Czars on our first trip to London,” said Midlake bassist Paul Alexander. “His voice was the first thing I noticed - John has such this incredible baritone. But we didn’t go crazy over him until we saw him live, and we then got him to support us on the Van Occupanther tour in the US. At the end, we said he had to come to Denton and make an album.”
These were songs that tapped the residue of growing up gay in a religious household in a suffocating small town near Kalamazoo in Michigan. Of meeting men and losing men, of coping with intimacy by numbing the senses. This non-coping mechanism was in place even by his teens. Already alienated by his circumstances, the Grant family’s shift to Denver, Colorado - all fresh air, mountains and social superiority " when he was 11 doubled the load. But help was at hand. Grant had imbibed his elder brothers and parents’ classic ‘70s records (“Kiss, Nazareth, Led Zep, Floyd, Judas Priest”) and learned classical piano, but Abba’s Greatest Hits was his eureka! moment. “When I first heard ‘SOS’," he said, “I just about came unglued for joy.” Supertramp's Breakfast in America and The Carpenters' Horizon were also joys, and later came New Wave, from Visage to Skinny Puppy, which kick-started his massive love for electronica.
But for a new album signaling a new start, Grant needed change, namely a more ‘70s-centric sound " the double-tracked vocals, the chorus effects, the shifting arrangements and instrumentation. “People haven’t been able to stop going on about the ‘70s so I thought I should dabble deeper myself and see why. But really what I’ve done is return to my roots.”
Queen Of Denmark was recorded in Denton in two four-month stints " July-October 2008 and May-July 2009 - in the studio downtime while Midlake were painstakingly recording their own album, The Courage Of Others. Every Midlake member chipped in but Paul Alexander and guitarist Eric Pulido, who co-produced the album with Grant, are on every track alongside drummer McKenzie Smith. Grants reserved special mention for Paul’s basslines. “They were outrageous, off the fuckin’ hook. Some evenings, we couldn’t stop smiling and laughing because I was so excited about his work.” The whole Denton experience, he adds, “was really uplifting. It was emotional and painful too but Midlake believed in me and told me, ‘people need to hear you, and we’re going to make it happen.”
With such support, Grant wasn’t going for any half-measures. “For me, there isn’t a word of filler on the album. I’ve made a very clear statement about where I’m at and who I am as a person, and that’s one reason I’m so proud of it, that I was able to articulate it. At least I’m being given a chance to embrace the pain instead of being afraid to move through it.”
Queen Of Denmark moves through simple piano settings (the lovestruck ballad ‘Caramel’ and the intriguing Scott Joplin-meets-Beatles ragtime of ‘Silver Platter’), via an infusion of period-perfect synths (the rockier ‘Sigourney’, a sultry ‘It’s Easier’) that epitomize the lonely mood. There’s flute from Midlake frontman Tim Smith on the dreamiest cut (and there is stiff competition) ‘Marz’, and velvet strings (‘Dreams’, which imagines Scott Walker influenced by Patsy Cline, and the darker drama ‘Leopard’). There are allusions to higher beings (‘Outer Space’) and to human weaknesses (‘JC’). There is pure longing regret in the opening ‘TC And Honeybear’ and bitterly sarcastic, amped-up anger in the magnificent title track finale. Pain, hope, fear, regret, anger, self-flagellation and self-discovery - Queen of Denmark has it all.
“I could wait a few days and fully digest this project, give you a review from a distance, but I want to capture the passion, the shock of hearing something so great. Something so honest, so authentic.” --Bob Lefsetz, The Lefsetz Letter
Grant has spent the last few months in the United Kingdom to much acclaim following a successful introductory tour opening for Midlake in the United States during spring and summer 2010. The Brits were quicker to catch on with the press issuing the album nearly ubiquitous four and five-star reviews " MOJO made it Album of the Month and called it a, “work of transcendant wonder.” An appearance on Later with Jools Holland show quickly followed as well as sessions with the BBC and The Guardian. Bookings with major European summer festivals came in quickly including performances at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk and The Green Man Festival in Wales. Now, following tours opening for Midlake and Wilco in the UK, John returns home to the US for his first ever US headlining tour in December 2010.
It’s a record of gravitas and grace, of haunting melodies laced with raw emotional bleeding"one that Aquarium Drunkard has already declared, “a cult classic”. It asks why relationships are roulette and love is hell in a last-ditch attempt at self-improvement and atonement after a decade of alcohol and cocaine dependency. It’s not overstating the case to say"as John has himself in a recent issue of The Times of London"that he’s contemplated suicide. And yet there is redemption in the album’s exquisite grooves.
And on top, to further the album’s brilliance, Denton, Texas’ mightiest band Midlake back Grant on the record, contributing its ‘70s-style soft-rock know-how. Put simply, Queen of Denmark is the record Grant’s been waiting his whole life to make.
After The Czars, “I basically gave up,” Grant said. On music that is. Instead, Grant moved to New York, studied for his certificate in Russian medical interpreting (he’s a gifted linguist, speaking German and Spanish as well as Russian) waited tables - and rarely performed live, though supports to Midlake were among the few shows he did perform. And that was how he began to contemplate another record.
“We first heard The Czars on our first trip to London,” said Midlake bassist Paul Alexander. “His voice was the first thing I noticed - John has such this incredible baritone. But we didn’t go crazy over him until we saw him live, and we then got him to support us on the Van Occupanther tour in the US. At the end, we said he had to come to Denton and make an album.”
These were songs that tapped the residue of growing up gay in a religious household in a suffocating small town near Kalamazoo in Michigan. Of meeting men and losing men, of coping with intimacy by numbing the senses. This non-coping mechanism was in place even by his teens. Already alienated by his circumstances, the Grant family’s shift to Denver, Colorado - all fresh air, mountains and social superiority " when he was 11 doubled the load. But help was at hand. Grant had imbibed his elder brothers and parents’ classic ‘70s records (“Kiss, Nazareth, Led Zep, Floyd, Judas Priest”) and learned classical piano, but Abba’s Greatest Hits was his eureka! moment. “When I first heard ‘SOS’," he said, “I just about came unglued for joy.” Supertramp's Breakfast in America and The Carpenters' Horizon were also joys, and later came New Wave, from Visage to Skinny Puppy, which kick-started his massive love for electronica.
But for a new album signaling a new start, Grant needed change, namely a more ‘70s-centric sound " the double-tracked vocals, the chorus effects, the shifting arrangements and instrumentation. “People haven’t been able to stop going on about the ‘70s so I thought I should dabble deeper myself and see why. But really what I’ve done is return to my roots.”
Queen Of Denmark was recorded in Denton in two four-month stints " July-October 2008 and May-July 2009 - in the studio downtime while Midlake were painstakingly recording their own album, The Courage Of Others. Every Midlake member chipped in but Paul Alexander and guitarist Eric Pulido, who co-produced the album with Grant, are on every track alongside drummer McKenzie Smith. Grants reserved special mention for Paul’s basslines. “They were outrageous, off the fuckin’ hook. Some evenings, we couldn’t stop smiling and laughing because I was so excited about his work.” The whole Denton experience, he adds, “was really uplifting. It was emotional and painful too but Midlake believed in me and told me, ‘people need to hear you, and we’re going to make it happen.”
With such support, Grant wasn’t going for any half-measures. “For me, there isn’t a word of filler on the album. I’ve made a very clear statement about where I’m at and who I am as a person, and that’s one reason I’m so proud of it, that I was able to articulate it. At least I’m being given a chance to embrace the pain instead of being afraid to move through it.”
Queen Of Denmark moves through simple piano settings (the lovestruck ballad ‘Caramel’ and the intriguing Scott Joplin-meets-Beatles ragtime of ‘Silver Platter’), via an infusion of period-perfect synths (the rockier ‘Sigourney’, a sultry ‘It’s Easier’) that epitomize the lonely mood. There’s flute from Midlake frontman Tim Smith on the dreamiest cut (and there is stiff competition) ‘Marz’, and velvet strings (‘Dreams’, which imagines Scott Walker influenced by Patsy Cline, and the darker drama ‘Leopard’). There are allusions to higher beings (‘Outer Space’) and to human weaknesses (‘JC’). There is pure longing regret in the opening ‘TC And Honeybear’ and bitterly sarcastic, amped-up anger in the magnificent title track finale. Pain, hope, fear, regret, anger, self-flagellation and self-discovery - Queen of Denmark has it all.
“I could wait a few days and fully digest this project, give you a review from a distance, but I want to capture the passion, the shock of hearing something so great. Something so honest, so authentic.” --Bob Lefsetz, The Lefsetz Letter
Grant has spent the last few months in the United Kingdom to much acclaim following a successful introductory tour opening for Midlake in the United States during spring and summer 2010. The Brits were quicker to catch on with the press issuing the album nearly ubiquitous four and five-star reviews " MOJO made it Album of the Month and called it a, “work of transcendant wonder.” An appearance on Later with Jools Holland show quickly followed as well as sessions with the BBC and The Guardian. Bookings with major European summer festivals came in quickly including performances at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk and The Green Man Festival in Wales. Now, following tours opening for Midlake and Wilco in the UK, John returns home to the US for his first ever US headlining tour in December 2010.
