V2. / Bmg
2003
Sumday
About This Album
Three years after the critically acclaimed The Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy returns with Sumday, which actually sounds more like a "sophtware slump" than their previous effort did. Like The Sophtware Slump, on Sumday the band attempts to reconcile the technological with the personal, both musically and lyrically. Several of the songs seem inspired by the rise and fall of the dotcoms and the Silicon Valley; this could have been a great opportunity for some interesting musical commentary, which is why it's so disappointing that the results are bland and complacent. Musically, the album's mix of chugging, fuzzy guitars; sparkly synths; and tinny drum machines is pleasant enough -- it's a mix of country-rock, soft rock, and new wave that suggests what a collaboration between Gram Parsons and the Alan Parsons Project might sound like -- but it's a little dated, and oddly enough, not as musically adventurous as The Sophtware Slump. Sumday's sequencing emphasizes its failings; the album begins with eight similarly quirky, mid-tempo songs that, on the first few listens, blend into each other so seamlessly that the first two-thirds of the album sound almost like one 30-minute track.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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