Great Grandpa
Patience, Moonbeam
RUN FOR COVER
ABOVE THE CURRENT
Considering the current state of independent music, I’d venture to guess that a larger percentage of bands than we might think are never really sure whether their next album might be their last. It's notable that Great Grandpa seemed all but resigned to that fact. The years that followed 2019’s Four of Arrows were, for reasons I need not mention, complicated. They saw the band slowly but surely break apart—not in any sort of dramatic way, but naturally, as its members became spread between Los Angeles and Denmark. If they were going to reunite, it seemed, there needed to be a reason more significant than whatever might have motivated them in the past.
The impetus is a familiar one, rooted in both lasting friendship and the evident need to change the way that camaraderie manifested itself in their music. The band’s primary songwriter, Pat Goodwin, compares their new record Patience, Moonbeam to none other than Abbey Road. This is a lofty and fascinating comparison point to consider, given both the tumultuous relationships and somewhat disjointed structure of The Beatles’ final studio record. But to Great Grandpa’s credit and detriment, there are times when it feels apt. For as often as Patience, Moonbeam delights, it can feel a bit cobbled together, an attempt to maintain balance among constant change and growing ambition.
I think what Goodwin is getting at more than anything is the band’s newfound relationship with songwriting. Where before he served as the primary force behind Great Grandpa’s catalog, Patience, Moonbeam quickly reveals itself to be a much more collaborative project. You can hear this most clearly on the songs written by Goodwin’s bandmates, but perhaps most fascinating is how often you hear this even during moments where he’s credited as the main songwriter. Like so much of Patience, Moonbeam, “Junior,” with its pedal steel, violin, cello, and wayward relationship with traditional song structure, constantly threatens to swerve off the road, to lose itself and the listener among all its flights of fancy. And yet, they’re able to maintain a center, exemplifying how brilliant and exciting that newfound approach can sound in practice.
The same goes for the sillier side of this approach. “Ladybug,” with its layered vocoder and cheeky references, could very easily be grating if not for a level of control the band is able to maintain. Of course, you fly this close to the sun and you might get burned. “Kid,” one of the record’s earliest singles, is all grandeur and ambition without quite displaying the execution to match. It's here you feel the mountain of ideas weighing down the whole endeavor, as if instead of making decisions, the band simply kept piling things on, one on top of the other. The result is a song that keeps you at a distance even as it pleads for you to buy all the way in.
The album can feel far less cluttered when it allows these ideas a chance to breathe. Great Grandpa is a band of undeniable talent, with vocalist Al Menne being a significant factor in that regard. Having released an album of his own back in 2023, Menne was clearly prepared to step into a bigger songwriting role, as he does here on tracks like “Kiss the Dice” and “Top Gun,” the latter a wonderful example of the kind of stripped-down, straightforward, intimate approach absent elsewhere. “Ephemera,” meanwhile, is one of the more singular tracks on Patience, Moonbeam, a skittery songwriting debut for drummer Cam LaFlam that betrays an eye for something completely different than the rest of the band.
These are just a few of dozens of rabbit holes the band dive into throughout Patience, Moon, inviting the listener to follow. There are moments where that’s easier and more enjoyable than others. Just as with Four of Arrows, this may very well be the last time we get a Great Grandpa record of this kind—which, for my money, would be a shame. For as ambitious as something like Patience, Moonbeam often is, I can think of few bands whose talent comes as close to pulling it off as this one.
