Adult Books – Grecian Urn

Adult Books’ 'Grecian Urn' nicely threads the rock/electronic and pop/meaning needles....
Adult Books : Grecian Urn
7.8 Taxi Gauche
2021 
Adult Books : Grecian Urn

Popular music’s shift into electronica has discomfited many people, who claim that “rock is dead” for the umpteenth time. But then there are those who’ve incorporated electronics into their music, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Multi-instrumentalist Nick Winfrey does it well fronting Adult Books on their sophomore album, Grecian Urn.

Electronics-into-rock isn’t actually new, and there is a definite feel of its eighties mix on Urn, like the great stark echo of “Holiday” or fuzzy shine to “Received”. But thankfully Adult Books don’t lose the meaning behind it all, whether with the higher indie-pop of “Dreams” or even the relaxed garage to opener “Innocence”. There are some times when the album goes a bit too sweet, such as the veering-on-sickly “Casey”, but never truly overboard in any wrong direction.

Inspired by a trip to Florence several years back (remember when we could take trips to places like Florence?…), Adult Books’ Grecian Urn nicely threads the rock/electronic and pop/meaning needles.

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