The first time I heard Grade 2, it was like being witness to a musical zeitgeist, the moment when you know your hearing something that’s new fresh and impactful, but has everything that’s come before in mind. This latest album is definitely the culmination of all that they have done, so self titling it as Grade 2, is by definition saying “this is us and this what we do, there’s no need for dressing it up in any other way”. You feel that with this album they have reached a point in their career where a bunch of 15 songs has now fully captured exactly what they are and have been, as well as moving forward still. As a band who are the antithesis of what guitar bands should be, Grade 2’s three piece bass, guitar, drum line up is just sublimely brilliant in its use of the basic tools to give a...
