Three years after their critical breakthrough, and one of the
greatest titled sophomore albums ever, the "Sophtware Slump" Grandaddy have
released their simply titled third album Sumday. Looking like Wyoming farm
workers, you wouldn't think that these California guys would base their
influences around the likes of Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, or the band they
most sound like, Sparklehorse. Sophtware Slump established their signature sound, low-key vocal melodies (a hybrid of Neil Young and Pink Floyd) with 70¡¯s sounding keyboard electronica (complete with E.L.O. samples) a concept album of sorts revolving around a emotional robot with a environmentalist agenda. Sumday builds on the strengths of that album, again sounding like melancholy machines trying to wipe away their metallic tears. On the fantastic track "I'm On Standby," singer Jason Lytle states "Bye bye,
I'm on standby, out of order or sort of unaligned, powered down for
redesign, according to the work order that you signed, I'll be down for
sometime." Very powerful stuff. And on the homesick track "El Caminos in the
West," Lytle dreams of the "Pacific pacifying us when we we're done" showing
that the lonesome road can leave you dreaming of the good life back home.
Grandaddy have proven once again that with a whisper and music comparable
to a wilting flower, that the simple approach is often the most effective and that even computers can have bleeding hearts.