"Anxieties" by Grail Guard

Coming so promptly after their last single, "People Just Like You" , Grail Guard seem to be emulating a successful boxer with the second half of a swiftly & strongly delivered combination in the form of today's "Anxieties".

I use the analogy as both songs lay into unpleasant people with the ferocity of righteousness and the integrity which many of us wish we could display in calling out obnoxious views and behaviours and making our own position clear.

As they say of it: "what were you doing summer 2024? If you were setting fire to bins and shouting at terrified families in a Travelodge, this song is about you!" I hope too that those who festooned St George cross flags wherever they could (oblivious to the irony of their Asian manufacture) in order to intimidate people whom they had no capacity to engage ethically with, hear the song too as it has a message for them as well. It even concludes by quoting Woody Guthrie: "all you fascists are bound to lose". Which I found a nice touch.

Obviously Grail Guard realise the cognitive limitations of the people they are criticising and so don't run the risk of their message being misunderstood by using too much ambiguity nor irony. They go straight in. As they not only wear their own hearts not only on their sleeves but all over their apparel, this can't have been difficult.

The good news too is that their own core audience, not in need of this education, will revel in this affirmation of their own values, so it's a bit of a double win. It's a sad fact but communities which feel under threat can cohere all the more in common resistance and this must account for some of the fervour of Grail Guard's fanbase. We have our anxieties too, only ours are polar opposites of the bigots'.

To call their performance of "Anxieties" "full on" is the least I can come up with: it burns with righteous fury. Producing them must present considerable challenges: not only to try & reflect the power of the live versions but merely to organise them in the studio enough to record and get them to restrain their understandable urge to throw themselves about in a manner suitable for the stage but less so when recording needs to be done.

It's a song with a message so the first thing anyone is going to notice is the stream of vocals searing the air, but they have nous with regard to structure too: the words sit within a blistering atmosphere of guitar but with an interesting and melodic bassline calmly anchoring the song and a drum performance which switches from manic to even more manic offering periodic punctuation.

If you are acquainted with the sort of people cited above, that's bad luck. But you could at least play "Anxieties" to them. I'm sure that Grail Guard wish to reach out far beyond the already converted.