Sycamore Smith – Grosspapa
welcome back folks! this week we’re already closing out the Sycamore Smith discography with his 2017 record, Grosspapa!
our opening track here is The Billions – a kind of anti-romantic song about a wedding. this one’s weirdly compelling. there’s a rich tapestry here, and not gonna lie the opening here is phenomenal, and the chorus is REAL catchy. that bit about seeing the ex-fiance on the side gets me every time. great track. Oh You continues the anti-romantic trend, a bit of a suggested story about the failings of falling into love. p good! plus the twist from “oh you” to “owe you” at the end is very neat. Shane is.. a fine track. it’s fine. i have a personal grudge where i keep interpreting the beginning as the beginning of the next track (even though it’s nothing like it!). ends up being one of my least fave tracks off the record. Congratulations, You Survived Your Suicide is like Man with the Skeleton Arms for me on this record – it stands head and shoulders above everything here. if this is the only one you give a shot to, do it. it’s dark, it’s cynical, it’s funny, it’s really good. top tier. Symphony of Smut is another fucking witty banger. great lyrics here. sign me the fuck up. also i gotta call out “working on my great merkin novel” as top tier wordplay here. Hop In the Vat’s fine. got some good like, malaphor jokes, and it’s got some good piano work, but i don’t have super strong feelings about it. Aces & Eights is a fun dueling threat track. this is one that’ll stick in my brain for a while and come out warmly on the other side the next time i sit down with these tracks, i think. Muriel Milady has the return of Flanagan, for a wonderfully ironic little track. gotta love the “we pray to God, and God preys on us”, haha. i really feel like i want to like The Divider a lot, but it’s just off for me. really dig it and the way the metaphorical suggestions at a relationship fit into some of the other stuff going on here on the record. The Lonely Place is a nice quiet outro – i always feel like with the vibes of the chorus of The Divider that it should’ve closed out but i don’t think it would’ve felt right missing this kind of simple guitar strum outro. and after an album largely about the failings of romance, could they end on anything other than a lonely place?
faves – The Billions, Congratulations, You Survived Your Suicide, Symphony of Smut, Aces & Eights
dislikes –
yeah this was a blast. i think it’s a fairly strong collection of well-written tracks – the lyricism is extremely fun and darkly humorous, and musically there’s a ton of really fun moments on the record. i think the only thing that stood out to me after sitting with it is how the first few tracks tie together extremely well thematically, right up until Congratulations turns the tone on its head. i think that vibe between the tracks is less a goofed attempt at thematic continuity and more that like, that anti-romantic vibe is kinda a strong throughline through a lot of Smith’s work, haha. on the whole though, very fun songs and a very good listen.
Grosspapa – 8/10
and for now, that wraps up Sycamore Smith! phenomenal lyricist, very fun musician. i hope y’all checked some of these tracks out, at least. next week, we’ll be starting a new discography – My Chemical Romance! check back next week for that!
the previous is the first: Redux | next: who knows!
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