Grabbel and the Final Cut-Feedback Part II (Live)

Grabbel and the Final Cut put out one of my favorite releases this year with a reissue of their Get Your Feet Back On The Ground EP cassingle back from 1991 in the form of an exquisite 7" for Captured Track imprint Shoegaze Archive. The three tracks were just shoegaze in a hyper condensed, springy, and purest from and I love it. Now while waiting for a rumored compilation of the more of their discography for release later this year, Grabbel and the Final Cut have released an excellent stop-gap with Feedback Part II.

Though calling Feedback Part II is really selling it short. Recorded over two different nights one of their reunion tour dates, the disk captures a band that really feels like they never quit. The guitars blaze and crackle, and the drums smash with ferocity. Front man Stefan Zachau cries out the lyrics with passion (and sometimes anger) as if there was no disconnect from the kid who wrote them practically 20 years ago. Grabbel and the Final Cut were on fire when they performed and it shows. While it's nice to hear the familiar songs booming ("Psycho Popsong" in particular shines) it's the unreleased cuts that are the real treasure here. The likes of "Never Always Mine (But I'll Be Fine)" and & "Teardrops" are not only as great as their previous material, but show a much darker and sadder side to the band that was only hinted at with their EP. "Dark Side" in particular that the band is not one shade of one genre, jumping with eerily quite to screeching, being powerful the whole time.

While live albums usually aren't usually a proper way to showcase a band, Feedback Part II more than rightly gives Grabbel and the Final Cut their dues and brings back a band for their second chance. And the band is more than making due on their return.



Links:

Grabbel and The Final Cut's Website
Buy Feedback Part II here, from the band themselves