Fragile Creatures and the complex constitution of "Grandaddy"

 

"Your grandaddy was the first in line / To go over the top and step into time / Who care if it was a pack of lies / Civil obedience and national pride..."

A long long time ago, I remember when I would visit my girlfriend's grandparents on holidays. It was like they were aliens, creatures from another world, pod people, who didn't associate with people who looked like us, or people of other races and certainly not anyone who was gay. We wouldn't bring up politics, we wouldn't dare, lest we fall down a big hole of mucky controversy. The idea was to be cordial, get out early. At the time, there was no intent of informing, of changing ones view, of curbing any inappropriateness, of teaching about racism, sexism or anything at all. The thought process was that it is too late a for them and, besides, they would be dead soon. They actually lived well into their 90's and it wasn't until after we were married and they were really in their last years that I realized not broaching those subjects, not having difficult conversations for all those years was the exact wrong thing to do. 

I thought of this when listening to the musical narrative of "Grandaddy" by Brighton bred, UK based Fragile Creatures. The song with lovely piano sounds, deep cutting guitar down beats and Adam Kidd's catchy indie rock vocal ascensions make the track feel like an upbeat anthem, “We’re never gonna give up on you!" The band shares that the lyrics and maybe the spaces between them "hide a more serious sentiment, wrapped up in weighty thoughts about militarism and unquestioning national pride." Maybe it makes sense as the song was penned during the pandemic, a period when part of the UK were still sharing their head about Brixit and over the pond, we were dealing with Trump, Qanon and Capitol house insurrections. Tumultuous times all over the world really and societies at each other's throats. 

The track has such a broad inviting pop rock sweep, nostalgic and tender and in the end Fragile Creatures assures that the overarching message of "Grandaddy" "is that we mustn’t give up on each other, on human sympathy, kindness, and hope."

Grandaddy is comprised of

Aaron Neville - keyboards, backing vocals
Adam Kidd - composer, guitar, vocals, production
Adam Whittles - bass guitar
James Crump - drums, percussion
Tom Alty - lead guitar

-Robb Donker Curtius

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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

https://www.facebook.com/fragilecreatures/

https://soundcloud.com/fragilecreatures

https://twitter.com/FragileCreature

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5fNQUz3jA7F9cfGzumhAh7

https://www.youtube.com/fragilecreatures

https://fragilecreatures.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fragilecreatures/

https://fragilecreatures.co.uk/

Fragile Creatures formed in Brighton in 2012. After 7 long years of art school Adam Kidd landed a publishing and recording contract and they were off. Adam had always been in bands and often they featured Tom Alty and Aaron Neville. A shared love of making noise transcended the usual limitations of genre. They recruited James Crump to play the drums then Adam Whittles to play bass guitar. Soon they were having a wild time recording in nice studios and playing in scuzzy bars. Fast forward to 2022 and we're starting to see the best songs of their career so far: new single Grandaddy is a perfect slice of power pop whose bright optimisit chorus hook: "We're never gonna give up on you" masks weighty thoughts about militarism and unquestioning national pride. The band plan to release a series of singles throughout 2022 while performing their blistering live show as often as possible.

The band put out their second album in August 2020: self-recorded, self-released, Punk Yacht is the sound of triumph against adversity, the sound of persistence when all signs tell you to quit, hang up the old six string and step away from the stage. A masterful mixture of contradictory sources combined into the most delightful of condiments. The sound of angry guitars against angelic synths, sweeping piano beside howling leads while furious beats rattle smack into cheeky twangs of bass. In a sense punk yacht has become more than just an album title for Fragile Creatures, it's a mission statement and a blueprint for how they want to make music.


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 Fragile Creatures, singer-songwriter, musician, indie rock, alt rock, pop rock, 5 piece band, UK, Brighton, angsty guitars, angelic synths, sweeping piano, mixture of contradictions, "Grandaddy",