Great Grandpa – Ambitious and Confident

Perhaps most notable is how seamlessly all five members contributed to the creation of the album, showcasing their individual voices while still managing to create something cohesive and whole. While Pat was the main songwriter on Four of Arrows and wrote much of the bedrock for Patience, Moonbeam, the writing and recording process for this album saw a looser, more inclusive atmosphere overall, built on what the band calls an “open door policy.” What could suffer from a kitchen-sink approach instead comes together brilliantly, a testament to the band’s musical and spiritual connection.

These 11 songs gleam with unexpected moments that resist stylistic pin-down, swinging like a pendulum from heavy to tender, playful to weighty, in what sounds like a sonic illustration of the pains and pleasures of being alive. On previously released “Doom,” soft formant-shifted choir explodes into the full-on bash of cymbals;  exhilarating lead single “Kid”—the only carry-over from the scrapped 2020 album—unfolds like a rock opera, moving deftly through a sea of melodies and scene changes. On the other side of the pendulum arc is the sense of playfulness and exuberance exemplified on tracks like the country-tinged song-story “Junior,” told through the eyes of a character who tromps around in a state of reckless boyhood and brags of pulling off “light crimes with my buddies all night” against a backdrop of rollicking banjo and strings.