album of the week: 4.1

Giant Drag
Waking Up is Hard To Do
(2013)




why you'll love it:  Smart, snarky songwriting, fun tunes to go with bummer content
why you'll hate it:  Lacks the punch of the debut, a couple corny songs.  Bittersweet ending to an under-appreciated band

The weird thing about Annie Hardy is that what makes her so hard to figure out is also what makes her songwriting so good, and personality so interesting.  I can't tell if her 2005 critically praised shoegaze rock album (as Giant Drag), Hearts & Unicorns made her a modern rock genius, doomed to wallow in the shadows of 90s grunge legends. Her sarcastic vocal delivery and sometimes rude lyrical content always has me guessing about what is sincere and what isn't.  I can't tell if the personality she shares with us on the internet is a satirical reflection of the drugs & rock and roll lifestyle, or a pretty big clue as to why there has been no follow up LP all these years.

What is certain is that Hearts & Unicorns is still a fantastic album.  That combined with a personality that keeps me guessing (and racking me with judgmental guilt), has kept me checking in on the status of Giant Drag every few months for close to a decade.  After years of silence, briefed with "there is new stuff"  "there is no new album"  "there is new material"  "most of it is old" "there was a new album I never told you about, but it's gone now" "there is no band"  "there is a band again"  "there is no new album again" - we have finally come to the abrupt conclusion - 

"There is a new album HERE IT IS RIGHT NOW!  oh and the band is done"

Although it's claimed that Waking Up is Hard To Do was mostly written in 2007, and has gone through production limbo for years, it still feels like the final act to a movie that skips the middle.  The album has a very different tone than the grit and spitfire of Hearts & Unicorns, and even the 2009 single, "Stuff To Live For".  There isn't as much fuzz and punch in the production, the lyrics and vocal delivery have this bubbly aloofness to them.  Even though this material is firmly planted in (let's just call it) nu-grunge, there is this sort of "over-it" tone to the songs; which either give them a silver-lining, or so wrapped up with clever condescension that they feel like pop songs.

The bottom line is that I'm totally cool with all of this.  Actually quite into it.  It feels natural that after 8 years, a person would change enough to put out material that feels different.  But even if this were released in 2007, I'd still love the fresh change.  I would never expect positive feeling brought into a Giant Drag song would be a good thing, but it really does work here.  I love everything in the first half of the album.  A lighthearted take on the kind of snarky and cool attitude Hardy puts into her songs.  "Meowch" and "I Saw The Light" are the only two low points for me, because i feel the songs rest too heavily on gimmick.

I suppose Waking Up should feel like closure.  It must certainly feel like that to Hardy; but the change of pace here left me wondering where else Giant Drag could have gone.  If not onwards from here, what would have come in those past eight years if there were constant output?  But here were are, at the end of Giant Drag.  I'm not sure whose fault it is.  Hers, mine, fate, or the music industry.  I'm just happy there was something to show for it in the end.

This was a super-indie release that went through years of hardship before a completed state.  If you would like to tip the artist, you can do so at anniehardy.bandcamp.com