Album Review: The New Sound by Geordie Greep

When the smoke clears, what is left? Goodbye, goodbye In October of 2022, fellow Sputnikmusic user Bilbodabag and myself were fortunate enough to see black midi live in what would ultimately be their final performance in the city of Chicago. Amidst such fabulous spectacles as a servile butler offering the band members oysters on a silver platter and the inevitable chaos of "John L" (broken up this time by the trio launching into a demented version of "Livin' on a Prayer"), one shining moment from this setlist has stuck with me the most two years after the fact. While it was not the only new song performed by the boys that evening -- I'm very much looking forward to a studio version of Cameron Picton's "Askance" surfacing -- for my money, the show-stopping event was what turned out to be an early version of "The Magician", now fully realized as the unforgettable climax of Geordie Greep's debut solo effort The New Sound.

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Former Black Midi frontman goes solo with one of the most obtuse, thrilling albums to be released this year It was less than two months ago that the sudden announcement that the avant-garde, experimental rock trio Black Midi were no more. After eight years and three albums together, founder member Geordie Greep just casually mentioned during an Instagram Live session that the band were “an interesting band that’s indefinitely over”. Whether this is a permanent break-up or a temporary hiatus remains to be seen, but Black Midi fans won’t have much time to mourn.

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While 'The New Sound' is primarily alternative pop, significant bossa nova and samba influences run throughout. The musical theatre-infused 'Holy Holy', the swooning croon of 'If You Are But a Dream', and the prog-rock outro of 'Blues' make for a record with 100-turns-a-minute that consistently defies expectations. Lyrically, too, Geordie Greep shapeshifts into an assortment of grotesque characters.

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Former Black Midi singer-guitarist Geordie Greep takes stock of contemporary masculinity with his first solo album, The New Sound. Where Black Midi constructed elaborate worlds to tell stories about boxers and soldiers on albums like 2022's Hellfire, Greep trains his focus on the type of men who worship at the altars of celebrity influencers like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson here, going so far as to adopt their voices and stick with them long enough to show the cracks in their pumped-up egos. Greep writes lyrics by the paragraph and sings them frantically, as though he's terrified that a song will run out before he gets to say everything on his mind.

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I can't imagine many people had Geordie Greep, frontman of experimental London four-piece black midi, haphazardly announce that the band was "indefinitely over" on their 2024 music bingo card. Reports of a solo album from the enthralling figurehead was a more plausible proposition after a busy five years filled with three studio albums (one Mercury Prize nominated) and an exhaustive touring schedule. Having been blindsided by their demise, fans were consoled with the news of Greep's impending debut solo album, The New Sound.

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