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Apr 01, 2025 Web Exclusive By Carlo Thomas

The success of Patience, Moonbeam rests on a foundation of collaborative spirit. It’s an album resulting from an “open door policy” that gave Great Grandpa’s five members space to contribute to writing the album’s 12 songs (previously, songwriting duties were helmed by Pat Goodwin). The result isn’t a collage of ideas but a cohesive and ambitious leap forward that pulls from graceful folk rock, darker experimentations, and so much in between.

The songs of Patience, Moonbeam never sit still. “Never Rest” opens with the tender country-tinged elegance found on Alex G’s House of Sugar, yet the chord shifts send the song on a darker path with peaks and valleys, ending with a walloping grungy riff that calls back to their debut. The ominous strumming, coupled with lead singer Al Menne’s vocals on “Doom” evoke a Radiohead-like dread. Album highlight “Ladybug” opens with a trip-hoppy buzz that falls into a swirling mix of a dancing piano and mountaintop-high vocals. (Even the soft popping of the interlude “Kiss the Dice” has its place.)

Balancing out these turns are softer, more gracious tracks, yet ones that are no less rewarding. Vital to this success are Menne and Goodwin’s vocals, which have never sounded so assured. They collide alongside bedrocks of noise on the climax of “Doom” and soar across single “Junior,” where the band stands back in awe, and envy, of a boy lost in his imagination. Their harmonizing vocals open up “Task,” which stretches into a blissful and jubilant instrumental interlude that serves as one of the album’s most enveloping moments.

It’s important to note that the existence of Patience, Moonbeam wasn’t a guarantee. Solo projects, familial duties, and other ventures pulled the members in different directions. But they came together nonetheless, scraping their previous ideas for this album, and started anew. Sometimes, the timing is just right. (www.greatgrandpa.band)

Author rating: 8/10