GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS
Strangelet
Zoe
· Gilmore Girls troubadour fails to show some ooomf.
It’s hard to put your finger on what makes some of Grant-Lee Phillips’s work so good. The man has a knack for writing songs that fit in between the realms of pop and alt-country and are seemingly simple and complicated at the same time. It’s hard to pin down what makes Phillips great when he’s great, which means it’s just as hard to figure out what’s gone wrong when he falls short. Strangelet is Phillips’s fifth post Grant-Lee Buffalo album and it’s hard to say why it doesn’t live up to previous releases like Virginia Creeper or Mobilize.
There’s no denying that his voice is strong and his lyrics are smart. His songs are well-written, but there’s just something… off. Perhaps it’s the lofty production, the lack of strong melodies or just the way that he delivers the songs – but Strangelet is missing the charm and conviction of albums by other artists who work in this adult-alt-pop vein. There’s no warmth here, no ooomf, no personality. Strangelet isn’t a terrible album – there’s plenty of skill and craftsmanship here – it’s just that we’ve come to expect more than skill from Grant-Lee Phillips and in this case, he fails to deliver.
2/5
ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
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