It’s just over a year since Grace Calver released arguably one of the best ever songs related to the undead - her debut single, ‘Zombie Conversations’ - pivoting from popular music blogger to accomplished artist in a way which felt natural and preordained. And now, here’s her debut EP, building on the success and catchiness of that first release.
The brilliantly named 'My Life and Its Disasters' is five tracks of Grace Calver's well polished, finely honed brand of dream-pop-meets-grunge, sugar-coated angst rock. It’s an infectious, deceptively innocent style of writing - like a rainbow with a pot of boiling oil at the end. And let's also not forget that Grace plays all the tuned instruments, too, leaving only the drums to be outsourced (in this case to Oscar Liddiard).
But let’s pause and go back to the beginning of the record.
Track one is that debut single again: it's not about actual zombies but a musing on shallow and seemingly dead social media conversations. The song presents as a kind of irresistible wave of bang up-to-date, melodic alt-rock; when I wrote about it in 2022, I described how it’s not a song that's stuck in any kind of genre-rut, but instead explores contemporary versions of well-known themes. This is a good song to open the record with: it sets the scene and presents the essence of Grace as a musician with her laid-back delivery and effervescent song-writing.
The third song on the EP is a new one, ‘Read Your Mind’ which is all about “getting mixed signals from the person you’re dating and how it would be good to know what they’re thinking” and it follows on almost seamlessly from 'Bored Of U', like a continuation of that conversation, with only a very subtle step up in terms of the energy and dynamism. This gives the middle portion of the record a lovely, natural flow. It's the core of the product around which the rest of the EP seems to revolve. By the time you get to this point, there's no way you could realistically press pause and walk away. You'd be mad to abandon this smoothly sweeping arc mid-way.
That well thought-out flow to the EP continues as the soft, reflective opening chords of 'Addicted' ring out. This remains my favourite of Grace's tracks, and I love hearing it in this context. Although the song features the familiar Grace Calver elements - sweet vocals, balanced and never-too-rowdy sounds - 'Addicted' has a deliciously dark edge, too. The vibe is ever-so-slightly over-obsessive; think 'Every Step You Take' for the 21st century, with roles reversed.
Finally, we get another new song: 'For Dead'. This is a bit of a step up in weight, with jangly and softened guitar licks duelling with other fuzzier riffs, all the while Grace weaving her vocals above and below. This is where some of the more emo influences which she often cites start to show themselves more. I'd love to hear more of this kind of thing, with Grace beginning to step a little further away from her bedroom-pop origins. "What could have been if I was a bit braver and a bit better at flirting," she muses in her press release for this song, reflecting on missed opportunities. Perhaps these learnings will translate into a further self-confidence as she continues to explore her music. I can't wait to see where this goes.
'My Life and Its Disasters' is all in all a record which I'd categorise in two ways: as a showcase collection of 5 songs, displaying several facets of Grace's character and musical approach; and also a singular, well-packaged, rounded listening experience. This means that it's a real pleasure to press play, sit back and relax while the music leads you by the hand from start to finish, guiding you through this montage of life moments.
Listen below, check out Grace's Bandcamp for music and merch, and look out for her on the road, including at several festivals (Foodies Festivals in London, Norwich and Chelmsford; The Suffolk Show; First Light Festival in Lowestoft) as well as in support slots for Leah Weller’s UK tour in Brighton and Birmingham in September.