Girl at the Rock Shows

I lost my motivation to do album reviews… again. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve been listening to plenty of new music, but having to sit down and review any of it just feels more tedious than enjoyable. I feel like that part of my brain has been shut down, but something in the air has shifted. I’m ready to actually write about some new music and get caught up on my to-do list, so instead of spending a bunch of time telling you how I only have an hour or so before my show tonight, but want to spend it with a new album, let’s just dig into ‘Now We Can Finally Bloom’ from Primer & Grayscale.

‘Now We Can Finally Bloom’ starts off on a super somber note with “Where is Winter.” Right off the bat, a wave of emotions hit me as I fell deep into Primer & Grayscale’s world, one word at a time. The words are straightforward, and the emotion that comes with them is as well, but I wasn’t expecting it to hit me so hard. I mean, I know nothing about Primer & Grayscale other than the information sent to me with some of their music. I’ve never met the members and, beyond a few emails back and forth, have no connection to them, but this opening track made me feel seen. It’s not just that I related to the words; it’s that they were reading my innermost thoughts. The entire song is somber but with waves of power and dynamics that will make those tears eke out of the side of your eyes until the song crescendos into the most beautiful and triumphant breath of fresh air. Talking about setting a freaking stage.

“Where is Winter” flawlessly transitions into the much more robust “Flower.” Kind of ironic and brilliant, right? Winter into “Flower” just like winter changes to spring? I digress, but really, I love how this song seems to polish the raw approach felt in “Where is Winter.” Don’t get me wrong, there’s still an insane amount of emotion and power behind this second song, but it just feels a bit more concert-ready. Actually, it feels more arena-ready. To say that the sound of this song is robust feels like such a painful understatement. There’s the perfect amount of echo on everything in this song to make it feel larger-than-life. It’s the kind of big sound that quickly deafens any thoughts in your head and, although I didn’t know it, this was just what I needed. I let this song play at full volume as I left this world for a few minutes and just swam in the ocean that is Primer & Grayscale.

Third up on this album is “Wholly Ghost,” which instantly took me back. There’s something about the guitar tone of the first few seconds of this song that instantly reminded me of Dropping Daylight (I know, deep dive, but if you know, you know). After just a few seconds of an epic instrumental introduction, the vocals come in. They feel different than the first two songs. They feel more defeated. I mean, sure, there was some defeat in “Where is Winter” with the somber feeling of that track, but this is different. It’s almost like this is where the emotions just completely take over, and the song teeters between a feeling of defeat and something a bit more positive throughout the four minutes and fifteen seconds that the track lasts.

I recently reviewed the next single (“Earnest’s Law”) as a standalone song just because I was so impatient to check it out. You can read that review here. I feel like it’s kind of silly to rehash everything I said in that post. That being said, hearing this song in the context of the full album just emphasized the message behind it. It’s a song about feeling out of sorts, and, when combined with the extreme emotion of the previous few songs and what is sure to come from the last three, I realize that it creates the perfect moment of defiant energy to help you cope with all of the insane emotions that this album may bring out of you.

The crunch that kicks off “Glass Figurines” doesn’t match the smoothness of the vocals, but I’m here for it. Again, I feel like the vocals have shifted ever so slightly for this song to bring a bit more of an Alkaline Trio vibe to the album, but the emotion and the feeling of the song are pure Primer & Grayscale. From the anthemic chorus of this song to those diary-like lyrics, “Glass Figurines” is the kind of song that will instantly get stuck in your head. It will also somehow ground you while keeping said head in the clouds. I wish I knew how to explain that a bit more, but this is something that you will just feel when you check out the album. My words will never do the feeling justice.

At just under six minutes long, “Candlelight” is the longest song on this album (okay, only by like a second, but still). I know I keep rattling off band names to compare this album to, and that’s not typically my vibe, but I was getting strong Brand New vibes from this song at the beginning before the track moved into something a bit more Manchester Orchestra. If either of those band names means anything to you, you don’t have to continue reading; just check out the song. If you need more, prepare yourself for this song with a stack of tissues, a warm beverage, and a fireplace or flickering candle. This song is dark and moody, but it’s absolutely beautiful. Just when I thought I had pulled myself together from all of the emotions that this album had made me feel, this one hit me like a one-two punch, and I was lost. I have now listened to this song four times through, just hoping that the right words to describe it would come to me, but I am stuck here, without words. Just listen and let this song seep into your soul. I’m not saying that it’s going to be a religious experience, but….

‘Now We Can Finally Bloom’ ends with “Passion Play.” Thankfully, this is an upbeat and positive feeling song. Although the lyrics, like the rest of the album, are painfully introspective, I like that Primer & Grayscale gives you a chance to pull yourself together before dumping you back to reality. The ugly cry moments are replaced by infectious moments of pure angst and aggression that will surely make you want to move around whatever space you’re inhabiting with a fist in the air. There’s something so poetic about ending this album with this song, not just because of the insane amount of energy that comes with it, but also because of the line “I don’t want to die” being shouted into your soul. It’s as if the band is reminding you that even though you probably just went through a rollercoaster of emotions, that’s just life, and, at the end of the day, life is messy, terrifying, sad, scary, but beautiful.

tl;dr- Everyone needs to hear this album. Period. This world is a crazy place, and we all go through so many emotions in any given day and, somehow, Primer & Grayscale have put all of that into song and have made it feel okay to not be okay while offering a sense of undeniable comfort. It bridges the gap between nostalgic emo and post-punk sounds with something that can only be called Primer & Grayscale. Buckle up for the ride. I know it’s only thirty minutes long, but the journey that is ‘Now We Can Finally Bloom’ is an intense (and beautiful) one.

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