The Grates are a band that manages to create a sound that is catchy and easy to listen to, but feels incredibly raw and real.
The Australian band has produced an album that is both edgy and sweet at the same time. Already rock stars in their native land, by being listed in Australian Rolling Stone as the “Hot Band to Watch in 2006,” the Grates have succeeded in sounding like much more than just one singer, one drummer and one guitarist.
The brief introduction “I Won’t Survive” is very dark and mysterious, sounding almost violent but flowing slowly and beautifully, engaging the listener to continue. Each song makes you feel something completely different, such as “Rock Boys,” which describes the sexual things she would do for a boy she loves and makes the song sound sad, not racy.
The song that follows, “Howl,” has a sound that makes you want to jump up and dance as the singer belts out the lyrics. This song has a sexual connotation as well, similar to “Trampoline,” which describes how the singer wants to use her bed as a trampoline.
The songs switch gears frequently, going from slow to sexual or jumpy to sad. The lead singer, Patience Hodgson, has a high voice that can get dark and raspy when she wants it to. The change in her vocal chords enable the songs with the saddest lyrics to have the deepest meanings in them. In the song “Feels like Pain,” Hodgson describes how everything and anything her lover does causes her pain. She repeats the phrase “like pain” over and over again, which would normally exhaust a listener but this one was pleasantly surprised how little she noticed it.
Perhaps the most obvious characteristic of this band is that it is not afraid to express its passion to whatever degree the members see fit.
The song “Inside Outside” describes death by different situations and tells of people who do not value their lives quite enough to qualify to live. It is not afraid of any word or situation to sing about, especially not sex. Yet, its music is so light and easy on the ears it doesn’t sound as hardcore as some of the lyrics read.
The final song, “I Am Siam” was the perfect way to end the album. It was soft but not too much that it shied away from the importance of the lyrics, which sings about the bands’ desire for freedom and independence from the world and the strength it possess.
The one complaint about the album is some of the songs’ length. Many of them sound too short; you find yourself wanting to hear more, but feel like you’ve been cut off. Out of 14 songs, only four of them are more than three minutes long; most of them are between two and three minutes.
The Grates creativity is obvious the moment one looks at the cover of the album, which was illustrated by the band members themselves. The track list was also their work of art, and is clever as it lists the song “Feels Like Pain” printed on a band-aid or “I Won’t Survive” shown on a gravestone.
A collection of songs that make you want to cry, dance, or make out with someone is an album that succeeds in making their listeners feel all the emotions of the spectrum from the music. The Grates hit the nail on the head in almost every possible way.