Joyful Noise
“Black Girls” the first song on Grampall Jookabox’s Ropechain sums up the album remarkably well. The song begins with lilting processed vocals that swoon overtop of pounding drums and a loose bouncing bass line. Unfortunately just after the song piques the listener’s interest David Adamson sings in a bluesy rasp “Black girls walk on tips of mountains/ Jump in seas like they was fountains/ Convincing the Earth to turn around again” effectively robbing his own song of some of its considerable momentum with his ridiculous lyrics.
Throughout Ropechain Adamson routinely crafts interesting bizarre songs — think Animal Collective meeting the Flaming Lips by way of early Beck — that are weakened by his ineptitude with the pen. On “The Girl Ain’t Preggers” the relentless bounce and beautiful harmonies are almost overcome by Adamson proclaiming “I love a baby mouth/ I love a baby mouth/ I want to hear the baby talk.” On “You Will Love my Boom” a thunderous ramshackle rhythm is saddled with holding up the lines “I took mushrooms and then proposed to you/ Because I love you love you.”
It’s clear that Adamson has no problem crafting compelling music he just can’t write a decent lyric to save his life. Provided the continuous stream of stoner-speak nonsense can be stomached though Ropechain provides a lot to like.
