Sound Doctrine » Jack Grace

Jack Grace – All Lost

Aug

posted by tommy

Just yesterday I wrote on the new BUOY single ‘Exit’ and the name Jack Grace popped up. It’s probably not the first time his name has come across your radar this year but you’d be incorrect in thinking that his process is as recent as his noise. The most obvious unifying thread between BUOY and Jack is the collaborative work they delivered courtesy of BUOY’s own ‘Break’ EP and if you had the chance to see her play in 2015 you might also have noticed Jack’s wizened features in the dark of the live formation. Less conspicuously however, both acts featured on the debut EP for Sydney’s Spirit Faces at the start of 2014 though at the time Jack was wearing the name Zebra Zap. So the relationship amongst this collective goes a whiles back and so too do these songs of Jack’s that have been released through 2016.

The first single ‘Hills‘, today’s offering of ‘All Lost’ and their containing EP have all been finished records for nearly two years. The first listening party for the concluded EP feels so far back now that sometimes I think I imagined it but then there’s no way I could forget the awe I felt in the first listen of this EP. The temptation was to celebrate the records production first and foremost, because who can ignore those immaculate drum breaks on ‘All Lost’ or brave, piercing sirens at the conclusion to ‘Hills’? But if you attend too closely to the recorded sounds themselves you risk missing out on the bigger picture. The songs themselves, in lyric and in structure are unbelievably evocative and capable of scraping at your most exposed nerve. One that you won’t find on the EP is the tranquil ‘Row Me Home’ and if you’re looking for evidence of what everything I just said, then this is it. It was recorded for a charity release on my own label TEEF Recordings and it’s a simple, sparse record that uses a strong nautical visual to drag you into the scene. Then, it completely buries you with the song’s last line.

‘Please don’t try to hug the shore
Row me straight into the storm’

Hes not an hyper-verbose lyricist and there’s no pretense to his words, just real feelings expressed simply. Returning the new one ‘All Lost’, Jack brings the same degree of earnestness and beds it in a series of cathartic admissions. If it feels honest, it’s because he doesn’t seem to have the capacity to write what he doesn’t feel which is a monumentally double edged sword. If you’ve read both this post and yesterday’s about BUOY in the one sitting, please know that I’m not always like this. It’s just a very big week for Australian music and I won’t water down my words just to seem more reasonable.

‘If it seems like I don’t care, it’s because I love you. And I don’t want to’

Think on this for a minute. If these are the records that Jack made two years ago and he’s spent the time since cutting his teeth on other people’s songs, what hope do any of us have when he starts recording again? Surely none.

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