To mark 10 years on the Ukrainian pop scene Green Grey has presented the public with a gift of its own: its newest album, “Emigrant.” Green Grey’s Murick and Diesel unveiled their latest oeuvre on May 28 at the Stoned Baboon bar where, with a bit of Beavis-and-Butthead schtick, they also fielded questions from the press.
Rumors of a new album had been circulating for the past two years and there appeared to be a couple of false starts. The duo’s third disc was originally going to be called either “Ducks 2000” or “Two Thousand and One Night.” But Murick, Green Grey’s lyricist/vocalist, described how he finally settled on the “Emigrant” title.
“In a middle of the night I woke up like I’d been hit over the head by a thought,” he shared at he Baboon meeting. “A voice told me to ‘Remember a Led Zeppelin song and everything’s goona be alright.'”
Thus, Murick came up with the name of the new album based on “Immigrant Song” from Zeppelin’s 1970 album, “Led Zeppelin III.” Moreover he said the name “Emigrant” also reflects currently reality in Ukraine – with Green Grey directing attention to brain-drain of young people leaving the country in search of a better life abroad – but also of the difficulties they find there.
The album contains 14 tracks, with songs ranging from hard rock to funk, with the early Green Grey synthesis of punk and hit-hop prevailing. Many of the songs will already be familiar to fans, since while Green Grey hasn’t released an album in a while, it has continued to put on live performances.
“Vesna Vosmogo Dnya” (Spring of the Eighth Day) is one of the album’s most complicated and curious compositions. Written in 2001 for a joint concert with young alternative Russian singer DeTsl, the song is dedicated to women and International Women’s Day. The chorus “Life is such – yes, like murky water” doesn’t sound too festive, but the simple lyrics do inspire vivid images of spring. Consisting of two intertwining main themes, a vocal one and a rap one, with a number of small phonic inserts, “Vesna” is a bit reminiscent of Manu Chao, a French-Spanish collaboration currently winning fans across Europe.
The track “Tolko Nochiu” (Only at Night), sounding like a hard-rock lullaby, is a contemporary of Green Grey’s superhit “Pod Dozhdyom” (Under the Rain). The story goes that in 1996, the band had to decide which of the two they wanted to promote and run with. They bet on “Pod Dozhdyom” and were probably right. The tender “Only at Night” is a great medlyak (slow dance) and just perfect for to kiss by at a concert, but it sounds too standard and reminiscent of hundreds of similar sweet songs sung by more famous bands. Still, “Tolko Nochiu” has a special meaning for Green Grey. It’s been nicknamed “U Tolika Nochiu,” (At Tolik’s at Night) and dedicated to Gala Radio’s DJ Tolya, Anatoly Veksklyarsky, the band’s co-founder and long-time supporter.
“At one period, we often came calling at Tolik’s for a late-night dinner,” Murick explained.
But it is “Na Styke Vekov” (Turn of the Century) which is probably the most inspired song on “Emigrant” and much more mature than Green Grey’s typical repertoire.
“This is one of the most high energy songs on the album,” Diesel said. “When I was writing it, I realized a lot about myself – it was written at the [Pecherska] Lavra, and that’s why it is hard to describe the state I was in at the time.”
The resulting song was recorded in a free-music mode, with each musician – Murick and Diesel plus their regular supporting band Golden Staff – basically improvising. The meditative melody seems to not even need vocals.
By contrast, “Sverkhzvukovoi” (Supersonic) is a typical punk ballad, inspired by the band’s frequent tours to the Russian provinces. It is a perfect festival number, and the band is planning to release it in four more languages: English, German, Spanish and Ukrainian.
