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Artists Everywhere Can Learn A Thing Or Two From GRiZ’s Latest “Say It Loud” LP

March 31, 2015 By Tyler Hubin

Hot off the press today is the moment all funk addicts have been waiting for. With the release of GRiZ’s Say It Loud LP, all voting for best album of 2015 is effectively closed. Alright maybe not just yet, but after listening straight through it’s clear that a new standard has been set this year. Live instrumentation is being appreciated by more fans than ever before, and artists who refuse to take risks are being thrown by the wayside.

Say It Loud is no Mad Liberation, but it was never supposed to be. Grant has managed to move on from his once dub-heavy style for a much more authentic, live feel. Hours upon hours spent recording his own samples much like Pretty Lights did in AMOTS have led up to the most hands-on production of his career. Over the years he’s tweaked his sound slightly on each album, all while keeping the identifying factors of “GRiZ” intact. If you were given headphones and listened to this album without knowing who it was made by, you’d know it’s GRiZ…15 seconds into lead track “The Anthem.”

Many times artists like to say something along the lines of “there’s a track on my album for everybody”, not Say It Loud though…it’s funk or GTFO. Too often an artist will try to appease everyone, while completely losing the cohesive feeling of an album in the process. Every one of these 11 tracks go hand in hand with the last and give the listener a peek inside of Grant’s head. It could be the seamless collab on “Need This” ft. The Floozies, or it could be the soul-melting vocals of Orlando Napier on “A Fine Way To Die.” Maybe it’s the Pink Floyd-meets-Pretty Lights vibes on “Headspace” that does it for you, or maybe it’s the sax supplied on “Funk Party.”

Point is, Say It Loud is an enormous step forward for GRiZ and is arguably his best piece of work to date. We saw this theme of recording rather than sampling on ACMOTS, and now Grant’s taking this idea and pushing it to the limit. He’s staked his claim as one of the best in the genre and is bringing electronic music to places it’s never been before. With this album, we feel he’s officially put himself up there with the head honchos Derek and Denis.