by Boris Fishpond
Hey, everyone. Ripthony Offtano here, coming at you with a review of an album I found on Spotify that I wanted to share with all of you because I thought it was interesting. The album is called Goode Grief, and it was released on October 9th of 2020 by a small-town indie experimental artist that goes by the name "Goode". Not much is known about Goode right now, except that he operates under the Bell Garden label. Goode Grief, the release of which was foreshadowed by the "Rivers Cuomo" and "End of the Road" singles, is actually his debut full-length project, and you can find it on just about any streaming service. I like giving attention to up and coming artists, and so I figured I should bring this new album to more people via this review. There's only nine tracks, so this shouldn't take too long.
If you asked me to tell you what specific genre I'd box this album into, I honestly don't think I'd be able to. Each track feels like an attempt at a different genre, and some songs even feel like a blend of multiple. A prime example is the opening track, "Psycho Path". It has a soft rock instrumental, but it features Goode rapping for the entirety of the song (save for the hook, which is sung). This style is never attempted again during this LP, save for a couple of the features on the back half of it. This is a pretty decent opening track, in all honestly. The static intro made me feel like my phone was glitching out, but everything else about it is a pretty fun listen. The instrumental is very well-put-together, I especially enjoy that buzzing bassline. The mix is pretty good, also. I love the Oliver Tree-esque distortion on the verses, and the hook has a nice vocal melody to it (which the mix does a good job of accentuating). The lyrics are nice, too. Goode comes through with some bars in a couple places, my favorites being the Nick Cave and Lizzo references. The only things holding this track back are that I honestly don't think Goode has an interesting rap voice, and his flow gets a little muddy in the middle of the second verse. Other than that, though, "Psycho Path" is a pretty solid opening track.
Moving on, we have "Rivers Cuomo", which was one of the singles. It's named after the lead singer of Weezer, though I have a difficult time understanding why. His name is said once in the lyrics, but that's the only reference to him. It kinda feels the song is call what it's called just to draw in more listeners based on the name. The song itself is okay, I like the beat quite a bit. The lyrics on the chorus are a bit pretentiously-written, and the vocals sound just a tad off-beat, but I can't deny that it's catchy. The autotune makes the pre-chorus sound slightly robotic, but, again, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't catchy. It's probably the weakest track on the LP, but it's still not particularly bad. I do very much appreciate the Mario samples, however, which brings me to a high point I have about Goode Grief: The sampling is quite nice for the most part. The aforementioned Mario samples in "Rivers", the Independence Day quote that you hear before the singing starts in "End of the Road", the Yu-Gi-Oh! quote heard towards the beginning of "Dust". The only sample I'm not sure if I like is the Michael Jackson grunts in "Out of Place". I gotta admit, it's kinda funny to hear MJ screaming his lungs out during the rap verse, but hearing his vocals in general just feels weird to me. Just to get the singles out of the way, I really enjoy "End of the Road". The rich, thumpy basslines heard throughout are really easy on the ears. The beat switch in the middle is also really well done, and I think Goode's voice sounds very lovely on this track. The lyrics are well-written, also. This is a solid track overall, it might honestly be my favorite out of the whole album.
Another highlight of this project for me is the features. All four guest artists bring a lot to the songs they appear on, and they all give wonderful performances. You have Glass Heart on "Onward", who comes through with uplifting lyrics about getting back on your feet, him and Goode have some fun vocal blending on the chorus, and his voice sounds really nice on top of it all. In the very next track, Kid Ruby makes an appearance on "What's Happening?". Her ad-libs that you hear throughout give her a very nice presence on the track, she has a really pretty voice, and her energy is extremely pleasant. The only issue I have with her contribution, as well as that song in general, is that the rap verse in the middle is a bit too quiet. The placement is perfect, but I just wish it were a little louder. In the back half of the record, we get a couple rapper features. One of is Spookshow Rain, who arguably has the coolest name out of all of the guests. He shows up on "Get the Broom", and he absolutely slaughters this beat. He comes through with some great bars (my favorites being the pie, faucet, and Sonic lines), his ad-libs are so much fun, his energy is to die for. I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was Goode rapping at first until I looked at the credits and saw that it wasn't, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Spookshow crushed it. I have the same feelings about Amethyst's contribution to "Out of Place". Her verse gives me heavy Eminem vibes, which I like. She has a great flow, she sounds really nice against the beat, she comes through with bars. She nailed it, she absolutely nailed it. I love the variety between the four features, they are the best parts of this album.
Having said that, what you can imagine would be the inverse of that statement absolutely is the case. Goode himself doesn't exactly have a good vocal presence, but that's very likely because this is is first album. It takes an artist a while to discover their true sound, so I'm sure his will improve over future projects. That being said, as far as right now goes, I absolutely would not be able to pick Goode out of a lineup of soundalikes. There are certainly moments where his voice sounds good (i.e. "End of the Road", "Out of Place", and especially "Everything I Am"), but it unfortunately ultimately is a kind of uninteresting sound. I definitely have to give him props for attempting to branch into all these different genres and styles, however, and I can also appreciate the mostly unique ways in which he does so. Another thing I enjoy is all the (what I'm guessing are) studio outtakes that were left into certain tracks. The one in "Get the Broom" makes me laugh a lot, the one in "Dust" is a nice way to end the record, the one in "Rivers Cuomo" also gets a laugh out of me. Special mention goes to the one in "End of the Road", also, that one hits different when you remember what the song is about. The best track, in my opinion, without a doubt is "Everything I Am". The beat, which was expertly produced by Grayson Talton, sounds incredible, and it also houses Goode's best lyricism and vocal performance out of the whole project. This is a very good song, it's a style that I'd love to hear him do more of.
Overall, Goode Grief is a very admirable debut project. For just nine tracks, it accomplishes quite a bit of what it sets out to do. Every track has a groovy instrumental, some of the vocal melodies are otherworldly catchy, the features are all great. The main thing holding it back is Goode's lack of a presence at this point in his career, and also the autotune is a bit much at times. For a debut project, it's not bad at all. It's actually quite enjoyable, especially when considering the lack of experience that the artist has at this point. I'm going to give Goode Grief a 7.5/10. I look forward to future projects he puts out, whenever they come.
