Genre-bending alternative artist grandma has shared his highly anticipated, weirdly wonderful sophomore EP Angelhood today. The EP’s arrival is celebrated with the premiere of “soft-glow”, which can be heard now below. The choruses of ‘soft-glow’ embody the ethereal feeling of love combatted with soft verses that ironically target moments of depression and suicidal ideation.
The name grandma seems at first unbefitting of multi-instrumentalist/producer Liam Hall, yet Angelhood gives us a few hints as to his unexpectedly pleasant grandmaternal ways. His lyricism is defined by cryptic aphorisms and somewhat deranged storytelling. Inquiries into spirituality and digital life are woven throughout, like whispers of an existential crisis accelerated by the relentlessness of time.
Central to Hall’s narrative is his hometown of Atlanta, a city whose home-grown genres like country, alternative rock, and trap all find a place in Angelhood’s sonic lexicon. While maintaining his penchant for skillful instrumentation, it seems Hall has escaped the irresistible call of nostalgia that defined his last project, the funk-infused Even If We Don’t Get It Together (2019), and instead embraced the uncertainty of the future with vulnerability and sincerity. Hall’s Southern charm lends a choirboy sweetness to the project’s underlying melancholia. Combining the effect of an epicene 1970s rock star with that of a public school e-boy, he electrifies the decentralized and liminal spaces of the Internet and the suburbs with a phantasmagoric exuberance.
Having collaborated with artists across a variety of genres including Rico Nasty, WILLOW, ericdoa, SoFaygo, YUNGBLUD, and JID, Hall continues to innovate his creative and original sound. Angelhood is the perfect soundtrack for flânerie, cyberstalking, photo manipulation, sowing discord on Discord, and manifestation, expertly capturing the furtiveness of coming of age, the ever-enchanting American dream, and the transformative effects of Internet use.