I reviewed the debut The Grey Race EP a while back and now they have produced a full length album. Overall this album is a low key affair, with many melodic ballads and a few mid-tempo numbers. Lead singer Jon Darling has a good vocal approach, like Paul McCartney fronting Coldplay. “Stop inside Your Start” is a reverse engineered take of the melody for the earlier EP song “On the Chin” and fits nicely as an opener. Tracy Bonham and Julia Darling adds thier own strength to the harmonies here and they sound great together with the band. The production on the full length here is carefully constructed and sounds excellent. “Cracks” has a dreamy quality that has served Coldplay so well, but there is a lack of hard edge on other songs that would push it past the casual listener. “Try not to think” is a beautiful ballad that is equal parts heart-felt and majestic. Other songs here try to match it’s grace, notably “From Me To You,” but the song lacks a strong hook even though the arrangement is wonderfully realized. On the latter half of the album a great standout track is “The Johnsons” – an epic thematic story in song and superior to Coldplay or Travis. With most of the album in a low key dreamy mode, the few mid tempo numbers stand out and “Lights Out” is a good example of this. It has everything you need in a song, strong melody, lyrics, vocals and instrumentation – and done very well. These standout tunes make “Give it Love” a worthy purchase or emusic download and a dream-pop favorite.
The Grey Race at World’s Fair | MySpace | E music
Listen to “The Johnsons”