Music Review // Mr. Grossman "Novella"

https://open.spotify.com/album/1Itbn6RFnDTRHTPbJpRybt?si=xfcnzl7vSBeB_wm-tYScQQ&nd=1

Mr. Grossman begins "Novella" with a song that has big synths called "Any Takers".   There is a very much a Phil Collins way about it, even as he sings the title, and somehow these four songs all sound different as well.  There is a groove here, with acoustic percussion as well, and it can just feel flat out mystical.

As we go into the second song, it is more of a ballad of sorts as it has the formula of singing + piano.   This happens a lot more in music than I care to admit, as even some of the heaviest bands like to occasionally strip down to make a song in this minimal way.  But whenever I hear it and think of someone singing and playing piano it always goes back to Billy Joel's "Piano Man".  Mr. Grossman just puts his own twist on that sound here.  

"Intermezzo" clocks in at only about a minute but it is perhaps the most interesting song on here in some ways as a lot is happening in that short time.   The vocals sound a bit like Elliott Smith, while the music itself feels kind of like it's going in reverse and as I hear it I can't help but picture a very specific scene shot with an old video camera.  The scene is of a single person shot through the eyes of their lover and it is Autumn as the leaves are all around them and falling.

The final song on this mini-album, "Up to Me", has these skip beats and pianos.  Keys seem to be a way of tying these four songs together.  There are also big bass synth notes, which somewhat feels like we're bringing this back to the first song as well.   Mr. Grossman manages to connect all four of these songs, no matter how different they may sound and that is not something as easy to do as it sounds.