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By John Spaulding<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is there a band having more fun than Grapetooth right now? Listening to their self-titled debut, it\u2019s hard to imagine that there was ever a dull moment when recording this album. Grapetooth consists of Clay Frankel (who you might be familiar with as the guitarist and frontman of Twin Peaks) and his roommate, Chicago-based producer Home-Sick<\/span>, <\/span><\/i>or Chris Bailoni. The duo released their debut single, \u201cTrouble\u201d over a year ago, and, since then, have sold out three shows, signed to Polyvinyl Records, and released their debut album. They started making music in Bailoni\u2019s bedroom studio just for kicks, bonding over a mutual admiration of \u201880s Japanese new wave and cheap red wine (the latter being the source of their name), and have evolved into a proper band.<\/span><\/p>\n The project divides its 40-minute length across 10 tracks, with almost every song sounding completely different than the last. The album\u2019s opener, \u201cViolent,\u201d sets the stage for what\u2019s to come: a lot of synths, \u201880s nostalgia, and fun. \u201cDeath\u201d and \u201cBlood\u201d both have infectious synths that beg the listener to dance like no one\u2019s watching. You also have \u201cImagine On,\u201d which sounds straight out of a John Hughes flick, which is followed by \u201cHangover Sq.,\u201d which takes its lyrics from a 17<\/span>th<\/span> century English poem and pairs it with a jangle-pop instrumental that wouldn\u2019t entirely surprise me to be a Smiths track that never saw the light of day. It\u2019s moments like this which showcase the band\u2019s free and easygoing attitude.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most impressive aspects of this album is its versatility; each track fits a different mood, and Clay\u2019s vocals are never quite the same on any two songs. This, however, leads to inconsistent flow at times, especially towards the back end of the album, where we go from the woozy and slow anthem \u201cHallelujah\u201d to the infectious dance tune \u201cBlood,\u201d and then right to the drunken sing along and closer \u201cTogether.\u201d \u00a0This takes away from each song\u2019s individuality and makes some songs feel out of place, leading me to believe that the album wouldn\u2019t flow any better or worse on shuffle. It\u2019s more of a collection of 10 singles than a complete album, which isn\u2019t entirely a bad thing considering just how good each song is.<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout the consistently synth-driven composition, there are only a few moments of awe-inspiring instrumentation across the whole album. The instrumental outro to \u201cBlood\u201d is one of these rare moments where Grapetooth takes a risk at some less conventional sounds. Overall, the instrumentation is far too predictable, especially considering the unorthodox approach to integrating a 250 year old poem into a song\u2019s lyrics.<\/span><\/p>\n This album\u2019s varying genres aligns with the whole Grapetooth aesthetic, which, in itself, is hard to describe. I have their poster on my dorm wall, which shows the duo wearing sneakers, baggy trousers, vintage football kits, and Frankel wielding a katana. They are often seen wearing suits that probably haven\u2019t been worn in 20 years, giving off the look of a less fortunate Gordon Gekko. For some reason, it all just works, and it illustrates all that is to love about Grapetooth; it\u2019s just so fun and organic that it doesn\u2019t need an explanation to be understood.<\/span><\/p>\n Although this album isn\u2019t the first album to wind the clock back 30 years, it\u2019s one of the better ones in recent memory. Something that many albums of this genre suffer from is a lack of personality. I\u2019ve heard numerous projects that attempt to bring back the dance hits of the \u201880s that are too bland and devoid of character to enjoy or remember. Every second on this album is oozing with personality, and couldn\u2019t have been written and performed by anyone other than Grapetooth. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By John Spaulding Is there a band having more fun than Grapetooth right now? Listening to their self-titled debut, it\u2019s hard to imagine that there was ever a dull moment when recording this album. Grapetooth consists of Clay Frankel (who you might be familiar with as the guitarist and frontman of Twin Peaks) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1524],"tags":[157,112,26,613,31,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}