Tuesday 24 August 2010
Tonight’s your night
You’ll swear you’ve heard the songs on It’s Heartbreak before. They’ll instantly sound familiar, and in just a listen or two, you’ll probably feel as if the debut album from Newfoundland-to-Toronto transplants Gramercy Riffs has been in your record collection for years. Perhaps it’s because the songs were co-written by Mara Pellerin and Lee Hanlon while she was at home in St. John’s and he was studying in Germany that these songs feel like they’ve traveled across a great divide–in space and time–to arrive as a perfectly formed collection of rock/pop songs. On songs like “The Freezedown”, their melodies by-pass your heart and head and go straight to your legs and feet, making it impossible to keep yourself still. When it breaks down into a slow ballad about 3 minutes in, you’ll want to grab your best gal or guy and do that kind of sultry slow grind swaying that works best when you’re breaking out in a slow sweat and feeling loose of limb.
“Dreaming” is an otherworldly gem of a song, featuring Pellerin on vocals and the most infectious melody on the record. She and Hanlon share the vocal duties throughout, providing a nice yin and yang balance. There isn’t a lot of flash and studio trickery to dress these songs up, basically because they don’t need it. Pellerin and Hanlon keep you listening to these tales of love and loss, heartbreak and hopefulness with their clear, honest delivery.
Gramercy Riffs will be playing as part of i (heart) music‘s festival in Ottawa on Thursday, August 26 (at Maverick’s) and then head down the 401 to Toronto’s El Mocambo on Friday August 27. It’s Heartbreak is available now at most online retailers.
MP3: Gramercy Riffs “The Freezedown”
Myspace: Gramercy Riffs
Facebook: Gramercy Riffs
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
