The Greeting Committee- This Is It (2018)

Imma be honest with you, chief. I had no idea about this record, or band before Spotify dropped them on my hand. Almost immediately, I checked them out, based on their really cool name, and this really cool album cover. I mean come on, look at that. It's so great. I went into this album with high hopes and coming out of it the first time, i had no idea what to think about it. The hooks were catchy, the songs were intriguing, the entire pacing was on POINT, but something seemed off... by my third listen I knew that this is one of the best alt-pop-rock albums I heard in a long time. It's so nice to turn on and just relax, despite a few of the heavier moments, but nothing really feels off in this collection of tracks, even when the two closing tracks are singles.

The Greeting Committee is a band filled with talented musicians and are just regular people wanting to share their talent with the world, and you can tell. The production is squeaky clean on every song here. Every song sounds crisp but tender, and you really really want to listen to it more and more... speaking of which.

A great thing this album succeeds at doing is sequencing it so it's an entire experience, rather than a simple playlist of tracks, but the crazy part is that you can listen to this on shuffle and still get the same amount of joy as you do with the standard tracklisting. Thing is. I highly recommend playing this from front to back on your first listen. That brings me to one of the best power ballads I heard, More. My god. Normally in those types of songs, the vocalist really carries the song, and that is expected, that is often the style that the artist has on most of their songs. What kills it for me is when they drag out their voice to the point where it sounds ear-grating and especially when they strain it (looking at you, Capaldi). But one thing The GC does really well is to make the instruments shine as well as the vocals, as well as just singing really well to make it be emotional but not earbleeding, and perfectly mix them into the song to where you would want to listen to the sadder moments more and more, my god that is a good song name.

Even though I am praising that aspect of the album a lot, I can not talk about this album without the slappers throughout. It has absolute bangers, as well as just happy songs not intended for large parties, and I love that. A few tracks that come to mind are the almost title track, Is This It? with a sax(?????????) as a core instrument, and Some Kind of Love, which I am an absolute sucker for guitar plucked melodies. Is This It? is such an unexpected song to open with, and it hooks you in immediately jumping you into this world of this kid on the cover, with the lyrics reflecting on your life and really asking if it has peaked or not. Are these really the best years of my life? Is it all downhill from here? And one of the great things about this song and record in general is that the question actually gets answered. I can't stop replaying that track, even though it ends a bit sudden

We immediately get into the gospel styled Pull It Together, which is about... well I'll let you figure it out. It's infectious chorus really stays with you, even if you haven't listened to it in a while, especially the piano in the background, it really adds to the touch of feeling like you're watching a movie, and you're seeing a full choir sing this live in like a church or something, except minus the jesus-y lyrics. You've Got Me I guess is one of the more forgettable tracks here, it blends in a little bit too much with the rest of the album in my personal opinion. The beginning of Run For Your Money I thought sounded a little bit like Some Kind of Love. On repeated listens I kept on thinking I heard that before, and when I went to compare them, they sounded different enough, however, the rest of the song really stands out on its own and the electric guitar was a really nice touch.

Gold Star is a nice palette cleanser, it's nice to listen to, however, to me I'm not a fan of the abrupt ending. Then we get into one of the best tracks on here, Flint. It is one of the more heavier songs, but it fits so well, and it even explicitly states the entire theme of the record in the chorus. With lyrics relating to trying to get your footing in on life, especially the line that stood out for me, "be who you're running to". That is a really powerful sentence. As someone who values self improvement over everything, that is a really important statement. In the simplest of terms, if you want to be red but you're working to be blue out of peer pressure or just thinking it is the best option for you, then sometimes you need to stop and think. Do you really want to be red or blue? I think this song shines on it a lot, and the instrumentation really pulls it all together, the vocals were mixed a little bit too low for me, but that is my only complaint.

Odds of Forever I wasn't really fond of, still isn't one of my favourite tracks, but at some points, I felt like it could've been shorter, even though it was a bit forgettable, at least for me. And then we get to Birthday Song. This is gut-wrenching in all the best ways possible. It's so sad and melancholic, but it brings you a sense of hope, saying you're not alone in this, and you can get through this. Being at the end of the tracklist, it really feels like a last effort someone has for you, a talk to say that what you are going though is normal and you will get through it. I absolutely love this track. And then we end things off with Don't Go. This was a strange song for me. It definitely feels like the final track, but something just isn't there. It ties it up in a neat bow, but tying the bow could've been a lot neater. It's still a good song, I just don't have that much to say about it.

And then, we get to 17. Oh my god. When I sat down to listen to this album from front to back without interruptions or anything else going on, I couldn't believe myself. I never had this much fun listening to a song in a while, and this is easily the best song on here. The chorus absolutely nails the landing, the lyrics are on point, the instrumentation is so beautiful sounding, this song is so underrated and it really deserves so much more attention. I swear, if the song is just numbers, I'll love it instantly, (ahem Bishop Ivy's "15")... Maybe I should make a song called 19 and have that be one of the greatest songs ever written. But going back to the subject matter, I really couldn't stop smiling and I was almost in denial at how much fun this sounds, because it resonates with me so much, hell, the entire album resonates with me. I really wish I found this band sooner, 2018 me would've ate this up, and The GC definitely need more exposure and attention to them because this album is something special, and all I could hope for is more GC music because this is such an amazing record, definitely worth your time. It's only 40 minutes so it's a very nice album to just put on if you got a spare minute.

8/10