The New Sound

''The New Sound'' is the debut solo studio album by English musician Geordie Greep, released on 4 October 2024 on Rough Trade Records. The album was produced by Black Midi touring and session member Seth Evans, with co-production from Greep.

The album was recorded in London and São Paulo between September 2023 and April 2024. Black Midi, the band Greep had led since 2017, went public with their indefinite hiatus in August 2024. Days after, he announced the release of ''The New Sound'', alongside its lead single " Holy, Holy". The album received acclaim from music critics.

Background

Greep recorded the album in London and São Paulo between September 2023 and March 2024, with the help of over thirty musicians. "The Magician" and "Walk Up" were originally Black Midi songs that were performed live but did not make it to a studio album before the band's hiatus. Black Midi drummer Morgan Simpson is featured on several tracks, as is touring musician Seth "Shank" Evans, who produced the album and performs lead vocals on "Motorbike". The album cover is an illustration by the Japanese artist, Toshio Saeki.

On 30 March 2024, Greep played his debut solo show at The Windmill in Brixton, billed as "Geordie Greep and the Swing Boys", where he played new material which would eventually make the album.

On 10 August 2024, Greep abruptly announced that Black Midi had been on an indefinite hiatus, and that the band had internally split up long before he made it public. On 20 August 2024, Greep announced the release of his studio album, along with the first single " Holy, Holy".

Recording

The album's recording sessions spanned "eight or nine" days in total, with Greep describing the process as "little chunks here and there rather than like a huge prolonged thing." Recording began in September 2023 at RAK Studios in London, where "Blues", "Walk Up", and "Motorbike" were recorded. Recorded at Fish Factory Studios, "The Magician" was the last song Greep and Evans recorded prior to Black Midi resuming their tour.

The São Paulo sessions took place at Estudio Do Tuto and Da Pá Virada in November and December 2023 while Greep and Evans were on tour with Black Midi in Brazil. Regarding one of the recording days in São Paulo, Greep noted: "It was the best day I can remember, musically. It was the best feeling." The pair had planned on recording " Holy, Holy" with an assembled group of session musicians, but found themselves working on four songs in total: "Once we started playing it was straight away. It was exactly as I wanted it to sound. Even just the bass and drums, it was brilliant, perfect. ..It was less overwrought or conscious. This, once we were playing with the musicians, it was incredible. We did three more songs with those guys and each one only took about an hour. Played it, did two more takes, and that was it."

Greep and Evans resumed recording in March 2024 at Fish Factory, where they recorded "The New Sound", "Bongo Season", and " If You Are But a Dream". Overdubs for the album were also recorded at Hermitage Works Studios, New Sound Studios, and HOXA HQ in London. The last overdubs were recorded in April 2024.

Music and lyrics

Style and influences

The album's opening track "Blues" is primarily a collaboration between Greep, Evans, and Black Midi drummer Morgan Simpson, with Greep noting: "It's one of the most impromptu in terms of the arrangement. That song was me and Morgan and Shank. I had the idea, but I wanted to keep it as loose as possible. The recording is the only time we played the song in full. It's all about the interaction between the drums and the vocal. I wanted to do something like one of my favorite singers, this French singer Léo Ferré. He has this rhetorical writing, starting with a theme and going down and down until you get to this pessimistic, nihilistic, end of the universe kind of thing."

The album's closing track is a cover of the 1940's song, " If You Are But a Dream", with Greep noting: "It's an old tune that Frank Sinatra did in the '40s. When I first heard it, I was like, "Why is this song not more famous?" It's a brilliant tune, really unusual. It's based on this Anton Rubinstein thing from the early 20th century. I've been really interested in this thing of good lyrics — not when the lyrics are, like, the best lyrics of all time, but when the music, the lyrics, and the melody all come together and synthesize a weird new feeling. ..I wanted to do a version of that with a Salvation Army brass band vibe, like Tom Waits or something."

Lyrics

The storytelling on ''The New Sound'' is frequently told from the point of view of characters Greep wrote, inspired by men that he met out drinking at clubs and the stories that they would tell him. "No matter how desperate or how disgusting these characters are in the songs, I hope at some point, people at least feel sorry for them or feel a similar feeling as them", Greep said.

Regarding the album's second single and opening track "Blues", Greep said, "I wanted to do a song about when you think you're the shit, and you have this feeling when you're walking down the street, and you can imagine it's a movie. Like, what a wanker! It's just a load of funny lines strung together, really, with the theme of like 18-year-old pretentiousness."

" Holy, Holy" contains a line about the character being known by "jihadis", which Greep said was influenced by how Andrew Tate bragged about ISIS watching his videos.

Release and promotion

To release the album, Greep signed a one-album deal with Rough Trade Records, who had previously released each of Black Midi's studio albums: "I got a one-album deal with Rough Trade, and that was after I'd already done most of the recording. The album was basically finished, but then the producer eth Evanshad to pay a mixing engineer, so I went to Rough Trade and it was great. They said, "Alright, the album's already done, so that's it." There was no "It needs a single" or anything. It's never been like that with them anyway."

Greep announced a listening party for the album on 9 September 2024 at Williamsburg Pizza in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Winners of a raffle were given the chance to listen to the album a month before its release with Greep in a trolley across Brooklyn. Later that week, Greep made his live solo debut in the United States with four shows in New York City held in four different small venues, joined by a backing band of percussionist Santiago Moyano, drummer Charlie Schefft, bassist David Strawn and keyboardist Cameron Campbell.

Greep also added an October–December 2024 tour of Europe, a winter 2025 tour of the United States, February 2025 dates in Japan and further spring 2025 dates in the United States.

Critical reception

Huw Baines from ''NME'' noted that the record was "not necessarily trying to be clever – more that the sheer weight of its many ideas crushes the more visceral response that its obvious instrumental swagger demands from its listener."

''The Sydney Morning Herald'' declared of ''The New Sound'' that "the incel era finally has its first classic album".

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

* Geordie Greep – vocals (1–7, 9–11), backing vocals (3), electric guitar (2, 4–7, 9, 10), acoustic guitar (2, 4–6, 9, 10), piano (5, 6, 9, 10), keyboards (5, 6), synthesizer (1–3, 5, 6, 8–10), accordion (2, 9, 10), fretless bass (3), organ (4, 5), electric piano (7, 10), bass (10)
* Seth Evans – vocals (8), backing vocals (3), electric and upright bass (1, 5, 8, 10), piano (8, 10), talk box (5), oboe (9), percussion (10)
* Fabio Sá – electric and upright bass (2, 3, 6, 9)
* Michael Dunlop – electric and upright bass (4, 7)
* John Jones – double bass (4, 11)
* Deschanel Gordon – piano (1–3, 5, 6, 8)
* Diarra Walcott–Ivanhoe – piano (2, 3, 7, 11)
* Chicao Montorfano – electric piano (3, 6, 9)
* Dennys Silva – percussion (2, 3, 9)
* Adé Eggún Crispin Robinson – percussion (1, 4, 5, 7, 8)
* Daniel Rogerson – electric guitar (4, 7)
* Paul Jones – electric and acoustic guitar (9)
* Felix Gonzalez – backing vocals (3)
* Thiaguinho Silva – drums (2, 3, 6, 9), percussion (6)
* Andrei Martynchyk – drums (10)
* Morgan Simpson – drums (1, 5, 8)
* Giles King–Ashong – drums (4, 7)
* Deji Ijishakin – saxophone (3, 5, 6, 8)
* Nina Lim, Kuari May – violin (9, 10)
* Freya Hicks – viola (9, 10)
* Felix Stephens – cello (2, 9, 10)
* Billy Rowlatt – trumpet (1–4, 6)
* Richard Leigh – trumpet (11)
* Freddie Wordsworth – trumpet (1–4, 6, 11)
* Joe Bristow – trombone (1–4, 6, 11)
* Matt Seddon – trombone (1–4, 6, 11)

Production

* Seth Evans – production
* Geordie Greep – co–production (all tracks), horn arrangements (1–4, 6)
* Nathan Boddy – mastering, mixing
* Liam Hebb – engineering (1, 5, 8)
* Margo Broom – engineering (1, 5, 8)
* Nathan Ridley – engineering (1, 5, 8)
* Rafa Barreto – engineering (2, 3, 9)
* Sid Souza – engineering (2, 3, 9)
* Thiago "Big" Rabello – engineering (2, 3, 9)
* Victor Neri – engineering (2, 3, 9)
* Simone Gallazio – engineering (3, 4, 7, 10, 11)
* Tuto Ferraz – engineering (6)
* Felix Stephens – string arrangements (9, 10)
* Harvey Grant – special arrangement for horns, piano, double bass, and vocal (11)

Charts

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:New Sound, The
2024 debut albums
Rough Trade Records albums
Works about incel subculture