When a record is called ‘my life and its disasters’, you should have a fair hunch its content isn’t going to be all blissful and shiny tales of love’s young dream. Give Grace Calver’s debut EP a listen and you’ll find your hunch proven true, with the East Anglian singer-songwriter’s first collection candidly confessing the quirks and pitfalls of her dating attempts over some top-quality bubblegum pop.
We’re already familiar with several of the songs here – past releases ‘Zombie Conversations’ – “a charming slack-pop dedication to wasted time on time wasters”, ‘Bored Of U’ – “dreamy pure pop, delicious honesty and purposefully cheesy harmonies” and ‘Addicted’ – “cutesy melody and indie rock finesse” receiving fair rotation through Edge of Arcady’s earphones over the past 12 months, a sparkling grouping of supremely crafted indie-pop gems, gilding a knowing, pure pop sweetness with a britpop-py edge.
New track ‘Read Your Mind’ is another straight up awkward jewel of a track, seeing Grace remain on over-analysing form as she admits, over a guitar and drum melody, wishing she could get inside her date’s head and, after spotting a bunch of messages on her fella’s phone, poses the exasperated question “Why’s it so hard for guys to just block their ex?”
It’s final song ‘For Dead’ that surprises us, casting off with a heavy riff, the type of which we haven’t come to expect from the multi-instrumentalist so far, and dark lyrics that see the humour slip as the singer throws her hands up about a toxic love that even she’s not able to make light of.
Funnily enough then, for an artist who uses her life’s gawkish disasters as a well of inspiration, we reckon this EP is only going to turn out to be a success.
Grace Calver’s debut EP ‘my life and its disasters’ was released on 14th April 2023 and is available to listen to on all streaming platforms as we speak. You can also buy a real life physical CD copy of the EP over on bandcamp.
You can hear the EP on Spotify below now: