Gramercy Arms - Never Say Anything (Magic Door Record Label)

If you asked me what Gramercy Arms’ most important musical quality is, I would have to say musical poise. Poise and understatement. That’s two. Their two most important qualities are poise and understatement. And delicacy. Perhaps restraint, too. Okay, there are many great things about Gramercy Arms, and most of those relate to their understanding that you don’t need to throw the kitchen sink into the creative process to end up with something satisfying. In fact, it is far better if you don’t.

And never were those qualities on display more obviously than with their latest single “Never Say Anything.” Even when the band are caught in the midst of an upbeat pop-rock delivery, there is something perfectly positioned about their musical building blocks, something that shows you that they know when a song is built. Anything else would be showboating or ego-driven, and those are things that you never find in their music. But this time out, they are on a very different tack right from the off.

If anything, “Never Say Anything” goes the other way, mercilessly editing itself down to the bare essence of the pop form and creating a song that seems as much about music as it is space, as much driven by feeling and mood as it is actual sonics.

If you went to an online dictionary and looked up the phrase, “less is more”, I wouldn’t be surprised if this song began playing in the background as if to act as some sort of sonic demonstration. And it would be everything that you need to know on the subject.

The Making Of The Making Of album
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Never Say Anything
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