‘Going it alone’ in the band-dominated landscape of rock takes a certain kind of intrepidity. You’ve got to be talented, you’ve got to be inventive, and – above all – you have to avoid the trap of getting lost in your own pretension when left with only you and your producer to reel it in.
So it’s good to see that former Over and Out member Steve Harrison has assuredly dodged the tropes of the solo artist in his new project GRACES. Showing his own musical sensibilities relative to his previous pop-punk outfit, ‘Slow’ is a confident, focused track that pounds and jolts with an agreeably stripped-back sound, and lyrically derides the notion of demanding social validation from your peers.
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Perhaps most interestingly, what can be heard owes much more to alternative rock influences than the rather emo, post-hardcore driven output of his works with Over and Out. There’s no airs and graces here – just good, solid, honest rock, which we can hopefully depend on hearing more of soon.
Words by Benedict