Geordie Greep The New Sound

Critic's Take

In his characteristically blunt, slightly sardonic voice Scotty Dransfield frames Geordie Greep's The New Sound as a big, brash, idiosyncratic record whose best songs - notably “Holy, Holy” and “As If Waltz” - showcase exquisite arrangements and nimble storytelling. He delights in the album's instrumental wizardry and salsa diversions while insisting that those highs sit alongside recurring lyrical sameness. The review reads as admiration tempered by impatience, praising the compositions as exquisite even as the emotional palette feels narrow. For listeners asking which are the best tracks on The New Sound, Dransfield points to “Holy, Holy” for its emotional arc and “As If Waltz” for its wistful beauty.

Key Points

• The best song, "Holy, Holy", is best for its clear emotional arc and sumptuous arrangement.
• The album’s core strengths are brilliant arrangements, genre-spanning instrumentation, and bold character-focused storytelling.

Themes

Critic's Take

In a voice equal parts disgusted and delighted, Geordie Greep’s The New Sound stakes its claim with the best tracks being “As if Waltz” and “The Magician”, where grotesque voyeurism and theatrical outbursts collide. The record finds its highlights in the menacing sweep of “As if Waltz” and the cathartic showmanship of “The Magician”, two songs that crystallise the album’s mixture of samba, prog and sickly bravado. Lesser moments like “Motorbike” temper the sheen, but do little to dull the album’s most thrilling peaks. This is an album of provocations, and its best tracks deliver that charge again and again.

Key Points

• The best song, “As if Waltz”, is the album highlight because it crystallises the menacing voyeurism and emotional charge.
• The album's core strengths are its adventurous instrumentation, samba-inflected rhythms and theatrical, grotesque narratives.

Themes

Critic's Take

Hi, everyone. In his usual hyperbolic, conversational cadence, Geordie Greep delivers on The New Sound with towering moments like “Holy, Holy” and the sprawling “The Magician”, songs that sell the album's best tracks through theatrical vocal turns and extravagant jazz-rock backing. The reviewer's voice revels in the album's feverish eccentricity, praising the manic energy and narrative spectacle while noting when guest voices, such as on “Motorbike”, undercut immersion. Overall, this is a relentless, kaleidoscopic record whose best songs crystallize Greep's dramatic flair and compositional ambition, making searchers for "best songs on The New Sound" find clear highlights in “Holy, Holy” and “The Magician”.

Key Points

• The Magician is best for its sprawling twelve-minute meta-commentary and central narrative weight.
• The album's core strengths are its theatrical jazz-rock arrangements and relentless, character-driven storytelling.

Themes

Critic's Take

In a voice that alternates between exasperated and amused, Geordie Greep makes The New Sound a study in overstated male pathology, with songs like “Holy, Holy” and “Bongo Season” standing out for their discomfiting clarity and musical ambition. The reviewer revels in Greep's chattery characters and zany, mile-a-minute shifts, praising the craft even as the relentlessness - especially on “Bongo Season” and the title track - can snuff out ideas. For listeners searching for the best tracks on The New Sound, “Holy, Holy” is framed as the linchpin and “Bongo Season” as a tantalizing near-miss, both showcasing the album's blend of satire and virtuosity.

Key Points

• “Holy, Holy” is best because it crystallizes the album’s satirical, unsettling character portraits with striking lyricism.
• The album’s core strengths are inventive genre-mixing and vivid character detail, offset by restless pacing that truncates ideas.

Themes

Critic's Take

Geordie Greep’s The New Sound is absolutely bonkers and utterly brilliant, a record that keeps you off-balance with theatrical turns and sudden stylistic pivots. The review revels in the best songs - the musical-theatre flourish of “Holy, Holy”, the swooning croon of “If You Are But a Dream”, and the prog-rock outro of “Blues” - each one acting as a highlight that exemplifies the album’s chameleon-like imagination. Flint Vázquez frames these as standout moments where genre-blending and grotesque, character-driven lyrics pay off in spades. This is a tight, confident recommendation for listeners seeking the best tracks on The New Sound and evidence that the hiatus was a price well paid.

Key Points

• The musical-theatre flair of “Holy, Holy” makes it the album’s most striking track.
• The album’s core strengths are genre-blending arrangements and grotesque, character-driven lyrics.

Themes

Critic's Take

Geordie Greep pivots thrillingly on The New Sound, and the best tracks - most notably “The Magician” and “As If Waltz” - reveal why his solo turn is such a success. The reviewer’s admiration is unmistakable, praising “The Magician” as the record's crown jewel and calling it one of the finest songs of 2024, while noting how “As If Waltz” and other pieces translate Greep’s lurid narratives into evocative arrangements. The album’s blend of jazz-fusion, mambo percussion, and broken narrators consistently makes the best songs on The New Sound feel cinematic and haunting. This is a debut that reconfigures familiar ingredients into something unmistakably new and triumphant.

Key Points

• “The Magician” is the album’s pinnacle due to its slow-burning composition, emotional depth, and standout 12-minute development.
• The album’s core strengths are evocative storytelling, jazz-fusion percussion, and inventive arrangements that repurpose black midi influences into a solo statement.

Themes

Critic's Take

Geordie Greep arrives on The New Sound with a record that delights in disorientation and sly character work, and the best tracks - notably “Through a War” and “As if Waltz” - showcase that tug between irresistible groove and intellectual mischief. The reviewer's voice finds the album most rewarding when its melodic swerves land, so the best songs on The New Sound are those that pair deft melody with the record's lounge-lizard sheen. In that sense, “Through a War” emerges as a centerpiece for its melodic clarity, while “As if Waltz” wins for brash horns and skronking guitars. Overall, the strongest moments are danceable yet unsettling, the places where musicianship and irony meet and briefly make sense.

Key Points

• The best song, notably 'Through a War', pairs deft melodic swerves with the album's intellectual mischief.
• The album's core strengths are its disorienting genre-mixing, strong musicianship, and uneasy, danceable grooves.

Themes

Critic's Take

Steve Erickson watches Geordie Greep interrogate contemporary masculinity on The New Sound, and it is the songs like “Blues” and “Holy, Holy” that register as the album's fiercest moments. Erickson's prose is concentrated and keen-eyed, noting how “Blues” savagely dissects a performative man and how “Holy, Holy” slips its swagger into a reveal that undercuts the narrator. He praises Greep's maximalist piling of sounds and emphasis on groove, making clear why listeners will ask which are the best songs on The New Sound. The result is an album that aims large musically while leaving, underneath, the unmistakable sorrow of a man crying alone.

Key Points

• “Blues” is the best song because its savagely detailed lyrics and bass-driven opening crystallize the album's interrogation of performative masculinity.
• The album's core strengths are its maximalist arrangements, emphasis on groove over hooks, and the emotional sorrow beneath the bombast.

Critic's Take

In Zara Hedderman’s voice, Geordie Greep's The New Sound finds its best songs in vivid, performative sketches - chief among them “As If Waltz” and “Holy, Holy”. Hedderman revels in the record's theatrical orchestration and lounge-bar glamour, praising the ravishing guitar riff of “As If Waltz” and the propulsive disco-tinge of “Holy, Holy” as standout moments. She still cautions that occasional excesses - like the bizarre final minute of “Walk Up” - show Greep throwing too many ideas at once, but ultimately frames the album as an entertaining showcase of his singular songwriting and vulnerability. This reads as a recommendation for listeners asking "what are the best tracks on The New Sound?" - start with “As If Waltz” and “Holy, Holy” and then explore the plush theatricality across the LP.

Key Points

• The best song is “As If Waltz” due to its 'ravishing guitar riff' and irresistible momentum.
• The album’s core strengths are theatrical orchestration, character-driven lyrics, and moments of tender vulnerability.

Themes