"People Just Like You" by Grail Guard
Review
We're still (just) in 2025 and my reviewing duties are not yet over. I managed to tell you about a brace of new YNES singles after I thought the release year was done & now Grail Guard have launched their own bid for the final single with "People Just Like You" (recorded at Abatis Studios and mastered by The Old Cider Press). It's not a bad way to say goodbye to the year with a trio of releases by such candid & uncompromising artists.
A taster for their forthcoming debut album 'Still No Future'(due out on March 6th via TNS Records) if we were at our ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraiser for The Tin earlier this month then you could hardly have missed their live performance which was a highlight of their set.
Anthemic yes, powerful yes but the true quality of the song and why it appealed to everyone that night is its integrity and message.
Grail Guard are a truly polemic band and what they believe in defines who they are. Fiercely opposed to prejudice & bigotry, "People Just Like You" however is not a broad attack on these evils but a stiletto aimed specifically at the hypocrisy & lack of ethics of those espousing division who should, from their own backgrounds & experiences, be most opposed to them.
The delivery style might be mistaken for ranting but make no mistake, this is an articulate group. Their own words, not just in the lyrics of the song are so clear & well chosen that it would be lacking in respect not to quote them directly: " Seems strange how many politicians are happy to blame immigrants for the problems in society, without recognising the they are children of immigrants who have fled war, famine and disease. Easy to dream up harsh policies when you've continually dehumanised the very people who look like and sound like your own parents.
Feels like politicians should be there to serve the people, to have our interests front and centre rather than their own self-serving priorities of wealth and status.
When the likes of Suella Braverman urge us to look elsewhere, to see "them" as the enemy and the cause of our misery, it's a deliberate distraction.
It's not people like them who are the problem Suella, it's 'People Just Like You'"
Many people feel that rather making progress in terms of embracing diversity and fostering inclusion, many societies are frantically dismantling those gains of recent decades. Now more than ever we need artists to front out the philosophies of community & tolerance, to put into words the feelings which the rest of us are not quite as good as. Glib slogans aimed at the already converted don't affect change, but well considered & forensic arguments like "People Just Like You" have the dialectic persuasive potential to change minds. Delivered in the no hold barred style (they self identify as "brutal") just amplifies their commitment and passion of their beliefs.
Looking back again to December 12th, the Tin was awash with a frenzied mix of genders, ages, ethnicities and every other identity signifier: interacting with as much fervour as Grail Guard: they got it & they endorsed in with vigour.
In the wise words of Sick Dick Warlock of Stegosaurus Sex Party: "If you gonna get excited about anything in 2026 this is probably a good start!" Let's hope he's right & that a catalyst for effective action has been activated.
Look out too for the music video which can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJof-6kjxu0
