This Autumn the Brighton alt-folk outfit The Family Grave release their new album “The Family Grave play Songs About Love”
Brighton's alt-folk outfit The Family Grave release their new album The Family Grave Play Songs About Love this autumn on their own Southcoasting label. This is their third album, and the second recorded with a full band at Church Road Studios in Hove (UK) with Paul Pascoe (Mudlow, The Beat Hotel) at the controls.
Songs About Love is a collection of songs about love in many different forms. These aren’t boy-meet-girl, angel-on-a-pedestal pop songs, but deep, heartfelt, intelligent reflections on various topics, unlike any other collection of songs you're likely to hear this year. Many are political, reflecting world events; others recount personal stories, while some focus on the concept of love.
Track-listing:
The Immigrant – A song about the love of country, whether the one you were born in or the one you've come to love. It’s a positive song in praise of immigrants, recognising migration as inevitable in life, like death and taxes. Everybody’s different, but at heart, we're all the same.
Leave Him Behind – A song about leaving love behind, forgetting what tied you down, and committing to a future where you're free, in control. It's an anti-love song, or perhaps a praise of the love of life over living in chains.
Caroline – For a love that might have been, echoing a distant relationship that lingers in the heart and mind. Some people leave lasting effects, whether through meaning, hope, or the possibility of a different path we could have taken.
No Fools – A song about loving a country and having to leave or fight for its survival. Written in February 2022, based on conversations with Ukrainian women about their fears and the likelihood of Russian invasion. The song isn’t anti-war but describes the lived experience of enduring a war that couldn’t be stopped.
No Return – About life in a tenement in East London in the '90s, living in a short-life Housing Co-operative as young lovers with nothing to their names. Nothing mattered, yet everything did. Every word is true.
Lessons of Love – It’s hard to know how to love. Sometimes we need a reminder of what love between two people requires. The trumpet on this track is gorgeous, and the video features monkeys showing their instinctive ability to love better than many humans.
The Prince of Dregs – A song about the fear of freedom and how love can tie us down. Sometimes we love being chained because freedom is hard. The song is a fairy tale and has nothing to do with real-life royals.
Loving Is Easy – Because sometimes songs are about how life could be, not how it is. Probably the classiest pop song on the album.
Six O’clock In the Morning – A country song about the need to keep moving on. "Keeping on the move is easier than saying you're done." You can love someone and still need to leave to feel alive.
This Is the Day – About finding the strength to love yourself and life as you find it. Seize the day and live in the moment because life is beautiful, and it's the only one we’ve got.
These ten songs were recorded by Jon on vocals and acoustic guitar, with the assistance of Martyn Moss (M.Butterfly), who played a significant role in The Family Grave's previous album Happy Songs. Drumming and percussion come from Peter Collis (Diamond Family Archive), while Matt Ellis Devitt's extraordinary trumpeting shines. There's also cornet by R. Dyer and backing vocals from The Gravettes, Tim Harbridge (Patients), and Lindsey Oliver.
If you had to define the album's sound, it lies between folk and acoustic music, with touches of jazz, country, pop, and soul. The complexity of the lyrics is matched by the musical arrangements, with surprises at every turn.
For fans of Sufjan Stevens, Palace Brothers, Father John Misty, and Silver Jews, with the Anglicism of The Beatles or The Beautiful South. This is not an album to play in the background, but a profound meditation to immerse yourself in.
The Family Grave writes classic songs and loves classic songwriting.
"No Return proves that great songwriting is not just about catchy hooks - it's about baring your soul and sharing your truth." – Divine Magazine
"Obtuse yet warmly warm folky goodness" – OutsideLeft
Happy Songs is "an eclectic collection of refreshingly different, thought-provoking songs" – Brighton Source
"Storytelling on this album is something you don't hear every day" – YDN Radio
