{"id":11134,"date":"2011-06-24T15:28:01","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T15:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11134"},"modified":"2011-07-16T21:16:23","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T21:16:23","slug":"swn-presents-john-grant-daughter-the-gate-cardiff-25-06-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/preview\/swn-presents-john-grant-daughter-the-gate-cardiff-25-06-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Swn presents John Grant \/ Daughter : The Gate, Cardiff : 25.06.11"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s probably examples of more unlikely, convoluted routes to critical acclaim and a peak of popularity, but JOHN GRANT’s is still hardly orthodox.\u00a0 Thirty-six in 2004, when the under-the-radar, glacially paced rise of his band The Czars imploded violently with all five bandmates upping and leaving over nine turbulent months, Grant took an extended break before composing his most markedly personal lyrics – addressing his relationships, sexuality, addictions, childhood and more – and recording them with Midlake as his backing band.\u00a0 The resulting debut solo album, Queen of Denmark<\/em>, promptly outstripped not only The Czars’ whole career in terms of impact, but arguably Midlake’s impressive recent resum\u00e9, going on to be named album of the year by Mojo amongst others.\u00a0\u00a0 With Grant’s warm, versatile croon recalling anyone from Harry Nilsson to Tim Buckley, Dennis Wilson\u00a0to Chet Baker, the album seems rooted musically\u00a0in a rustic 1970s America but frequently startles with the stinging poignancy of its lyrics.<\/p>\n

Central to the impact of the album were its two promo videos, directed by Cardiff’s own wizards of the disturbing and memorable image Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris; ‘Marz’ meditated on death and afterlife with a cast of familiar faces dancing and welcoming a young suicide with beatific smiles amid a sea of floating confectionery, while the clip for ‘Chicken Bones’ saw Grant wandering Grangetown and Bessemer Road market as a budget superhero before embarking on a lysergic after-hours journey through Clwb and a love rival’s waterside flat.\u00a0 Adopted as a friend of the city, a main stage slot at Green Man last year saw Grant accompanied by a solo piano and holding a mid-afternoon crowd rapt, no mean feat.\u00a0 A great raconteur, candid, touching and funny, and a fine songwriter, this intimate setting will surely suit him down to the ground.<\/p>\n

———————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

SWN presents
\nJOHN GRANT
\nplus DAUGHTER<\/p>\n

Saturday 25th June 2011
\nThe Gate, Roath, Cardiff
\n7.30pm-11.00pm
\n\u00a316.50 adv from\u00a0swnpresents.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.wegottickets.com\/event\/116994<\/a>
\nticketlineuk.com
\nseetickets.com
\nSpillers Records
\nDerricks Records
\nBristol Ticket Shop
\nThe Gate<\/p>\n

This is a 14+ show \/ please bring ID<\/p>\n

JOHN GRANT, former singer\/songwriter with Bella Union cult favorites THE CZARS, returned with an extraordinary debut solo album made with MIDLAKE.<\/p>\n

Everyone has a favorite band or singer they reckon is subject to criminal neglect. That John Grant\u2019s effortlessly rich, expansive baritone, couched in typically heartbreaking, lush melody, hadn\u2019t found a wider audience many would consider a crime. But no longer. Because Grant\u2019s first solo album was so undeniably great that the world listened. It won glorious reviews, with Mojo naming it their album of 2010.
\nIt\u2019s a record of gravitas and grace, of FM melody magic laced with raw emotional bleeding. It asks why relationships are roulette and love is hell in a last-ditch attempt at self-improvement and atonement after years of alcohol and cocaine dependency. And on top, to further the album\u2019s brilliance, Grant\u2019s backing band on the album are Bella Union label-mates MIDLAKE, contributing their most empathic \u201870s-style soft-rock know-how. Put simply, \u201cQueen Of Denmark\u201d is the record Grant was waiting his whole life to make.
\nNot that the Czars didn\u2019t hit their own heights. After emerging from Denver, Colorado, rave reviews were the norm\u2026 \u201cLong distinguished by John Grant\u2019s superlative baritone, \u2018Goodbye\u2019 reeks of wistful, melancholic class\u2026 as meticulous and complete-sounding as the best works by Mercury Rev or The Flaming Lips\u201d said Uncut about The Czars\u2019 final album.
\n\u201cQueen Of Denmark\u201d was recorded in Denton in late 2008 through 2009 in the studio downtime while Midlake were recording their own record. The album moves through simple piano settings via an infusion of period-perfect synths that epitomise the lonely mood. There\u2019s flute from Midlake frontman Tim Smith on the dreamiest cut \u2018Marz\u2019 and velvet strings on \u2018Dreams\u2019, which imagines Scott Walker influenced by Patsy Cline. There is pure longing in the opening \u2018TC And Honeybear\u2019 and bitterly sarcastic anger in the magnificent title track finale\u2026 Pain, hope, fear, regret and self-discovery\u2026 \u201cQueen of Denmark\u201d has it all\u2026 framed within some of the finest songs you\u2019ll hear in this or any other year\u2026<\/p>\n

Critical acclaim for \u201cQueen Of Denmark\u201d, the debut album by John Grant, released April 2010 on Bella Union records\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cA work of transcendent wonder\u2026 Grant confronts romantic loss with astonishing depth of feeling\u2026 brutally funny\u2026 gorgeously bleak\u2026 truly beautiful\u201d<\/p>\n

MOJO – 5 Stars ***** (Number 1 MOJO Album of the year)<\/p>\n

\u201cthe most gorgeous, Seventies-style folky, floaty, dreamy, trippy soft rock you\u2019ve ever heard\u2026 a masterpiece\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday Telegraph – 5 Stars *****<\/p>\n

\u201cHeartfelt and heartbreaking\u2026 Close to perfect\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent On Sunday \u2013 5 stars *****<\/p>\n

\u201cQueen Of Denmark takes John\u2019s accomplishments to a new level\u2026 without question one of the year\u2019s best albums\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sun \u2013 5 Stars *****<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant on top form\u2026 Wry tales of personal redemption are backed by Midlake\u2019s 70s soft-rock, tuned to its most dreamy\u201d<\/p>\n

NME \u2013 8\/10<\/p>\n

\u201can album of strength and beauty\u2026 Grant\u2019s vocals float over backing from Midlake at their most dreamy and lush\u201d<\/p>\n

Q – 4 Stars ****<\/p>\n

\u201ca colossus\u2026 these are songs with an air of vastness and contemplation recalling Dennis Wilson\u2019s masterpiece, Pacific Ocean Blue\u2026 Grant is a man whose time has come\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian – 4 Stars ****<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant is Karen Carpenter to Midlake\u2019s Supertramp: a painfully honest writer, able to render discomfiture in songs with the sweetness of nursery rhymes\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncut – 4 Stars ****<\/p>\n

\u201cA near-perfect marriage of Grant\u2019s warm baritone with Midlake\u2019s lush woodwind and keyboard textures\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent – 4 stars ****<\/p>\n

\u201cwhile Grant can\u2019t attain perfection in his actual life, he gets pretty close in his art\u201d
\nThe Sunday Times – 4 Stars ****<\/p>\n

\u201cQueen of Denmark alchemises John Grant\u2019s complicated personal life into warm, infectiously charming classic rock\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial Times – 4 Stars ****<\/p>\n

\u201ca brilliant mixture of anger, confession, humour, melody and astonishing vocals\u2026 An extraordinary album\u201d<\/p>\n

WORD<\/p>\n

\u201cA masterpiece of soft, 70s melodies and sadness\u2026 Terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Observer<\/p>\n

\u201ca daring record: Seventies-sounding ballads full of lush wistfulness and unexpected humour\u201d<\/p>\n

Esquire<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Czars\u2019 John Grant returns with a ravaged confessional honey of an album\u2026 Intoxicating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent (Information)<\/p>\n

\u201cA luxurious sounding collection\u2026 sweeping, epic ballds are Grant\u2019s forte\u201d<\/p>\n

Clash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s probably examples of more unlikely, convoluted routes to critical acclaim and a peak of popularity, but JOHN GRANT’s is still hardly orthodox.\u00a0 Thirty-six in 2004, when the under-the-radar, glacially paced rise of his band The Czars imploded violently with all five bandmates upping and leaving over nine turbulent months, Grant took an extended break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[458],"tags":[469,2044,2043,498,641],"class_list":["post-11134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preview","tag-cardiff","tag-daughter","tag-john-grant","tag-swn","tag-the-gate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}