Guy Grogan: Dynamite Bouquet
Guy Grogan
Dynamite Bouquet
(self-released)
With nine albums to his credit, award-winning songwriter and one-man-band Guy Grogan has this music thing down. His new album, Dynamite Bouquet, is chock-full of good little rock tunes. The big, rolling trash snare and tight, power chord teasing of âMy Own Way Outâ lays perfectly behind equally taunting vocals and a singable chorus. âMetafixationâ features muted rhythm electric and a desperate roil behind Groganâs barely-croaking vocal, then things break open into a punk chorus and run a little louder from there, a formula Grogan uses often here. âNow Iâm Me From Youâ is the most punk-sounding tune this far into the album with itâs fat rhythm guitar, snappy high-tuned snare, and Groganâs barely-articulated grumbling. Again though, he breaks things open seductively in the chorus with harmony vocals and big hits â good stuff for sure! I love the flicky âPseudo Euphoriaâ with its stop-and-go snap. For me, itâs the best Grogan vocal here; he uses that mumbling affectation to great affect (and its one of the tunes you can understand him best) and again his oft-used difference between the tightness of the verses and the open wailing choruses mix well. âMoonbirdâ presents what sounds like plucky xylophone and Groganâs softest vocal, while the drive of piano single notes, slicing rhythm guitar, and a riding-the-crest-of-a-wave roiling of the last tune âWaterfallsâ really works for me as a big, dramatic read to end Dynamite Bouquet.