Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If you wanted happening, creative, inventive and artistic way of life in America during the late 70s through to around 1993, then like the period before the Second World War and the smell of Jazz oozing out of the bars on 77th Street like a victory parade caught in the heat of noon day sun, the best place to go was New York City.
The west coast of America may have had a similar vibe crunching under foot but that was more of a hangover from the flower power period of the late 60s and early 70s. By the time 1978 knocked on the door, you wanted creativity, artistic freedom then New York was the place to be. Whether it was because there was the sense of urban decay filtering round like scorched butterflies dangerously flying around the aftermath of an oven explosion in Hell’s Kitchen or because the indomitable spirit of New York is very much of the same character that is visible on every street in Liverpool…the only way to determine is by listening to some of the music that came out of that city in that period.
Those days may be gone to a certain extent but Gramercy Arms’ second full length album, The Seasons of Love, captures the mood of the time, be it another generation on and invokes deep feelings of a near forgotten love of arguably the most vibrant city in the world.
The songs that make up The Seasons of Love, play with the positivity that felt in that period of time, the city may have been close to bankruptcy but there was undeniable spark, a flame that could not be extinguished completely and from out of the ashes a scene grew once more. That scene is felt keenly, the love, the anger, the betrayal of a generation, hope…unflinching, unadulterated hope throughout The Seasons of Love and its beauty radiates as if captured in a John Lennon lyric.
With collaborations from the great Lloyd Cole and Joan Wasser, Kay Hanley, the superb Erin Moran and Doug Gillard, Gramercy Arms’ songs are fresh, the taste of thunder and lightning on a hot summer’s afternoon that bounces between the sun’s rays is irresistible and as vast as the gateway to America is, pop music for the time and the time that came before.
Tracks such as the astounding Beautiful Disguise, the ironic nature of Always in Love, the gorgeous Yours Untruly, and the grace of Erin Moran’s vocals on Novemberlong make the work arranged by Dave Derby, Rainy Orleca, Kevin March and Sean Eden and played with such deftness and truth to the period, a genuine pleasure to sit and listen to.
Great cities come and go, time erodes the futility of urban empires but New York, the biggest and best of them, all should stand, or at least be remembered for all time because of the nature of its character. Gramercy Arms have added another chapter to keep the book going.
Gramercy Arms’ The Seasons of Love is released on July 21st
Ian D. Hall