Many of us found escape, release, and connection through music during the worst months of the pandemic. Of those many, some of us may have tried our hand at writing a song or two, channeling the terror and ennui into something we could sing along to in a crowd—whenever crowds became safe again. But for Great American Novel frontman Layne Montgomery, guitar player, singer, and main songwriter for the band, music was more than that. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Online, GAN’s latest album, is part lifeline and part diary, while always preserving the kids-in-the-garage flavor that first hooked fans (that is, those of us who didn’t discover the band through the theme song to popular film podcast Blank Check).
As the literary name of the album (and the band) suggests, there’s a wry self-deprecation to the lyrics here. The band, and the listener, are all in on the gag. With tracks like “Do You Enjoy Being Depressed?” And “Bad News, I Still Love You,” it’s not hard to imagine this record as the soundtrack to a particularly self-aware breakup. But it’s also, clearly, a product of the pandemic. “Grabbin’ a Slice” functions as a hymn to the casual hang, the antidote to Zoom fatigue. “Going to the Movies or California” describes the past 16 months of my life pretty much to a tee. And then of course there’s the final number, “This Will Not Be Our Year.” I suspect a use of the royal we in “our.” And no, it wasn’t.
If you’ve made it onto FLOOD, I can only assume that you, too, are sometimes extremely loud, and if not, then incredibly online. In a tight ten tracks, this hook-heavy album just might be the thing to pump you up enough to, dare we say it, leave the house.
Listen to the full album here.
