The Family Grave – Old Songs For Kids (2025)
The Family Grave’s new album, Old Songs for Kids, sounds like a band stretching out – somewhat. On the third album in the band’s Happy Songs Trilogy, frontman and primary songwriter Jon and company incorporate music traditions from outside of Brighton and execute compositions with a unity unheard on the first two albums. The songs are warmer and larger with the help of engineer Paul Pascoe. The Family Grave sound like they’ve levelled up.
This is evident in the opening track, ‘Sweet Charity’. Jon champions the power of unconditional love, empowered by uplifting organ notes, comforting guitar melodies and the serene brightness of the mix. Next up is ‘AC DC’, the album standout. It’s reminiscent of the looseness of a song like ‘Mr. Train Driver’ from Happy Songs with assertive, wild guitar chords and anthem-like percussion. Like that song, Jon is self-assured, singing, “I don’t need you to like the same as me/I just need to know that you still love me.” That confidence and improvised horns and flutes provide the band’s artistry, which on ‘AC DC’ goes beyond influence and makes the band their own brand.
Songs ‘Daylight’ and ‘Your English Summer’ are danceable. The band is more in sync than ever, infusing each song’s movement with more flow, creating a smooth outcome. Both have Jon’s microscopic writing style and prophetic point of view. ‘Daylight’ takes a look at a shaky friendship, and ‘Your English Summer’ holds a mirror to unhealthy English traditions. But the lyrics provide commentary instead of the usual introspection. The band leans into the incorporation of jazz traditions on ‘Daylight’ and into surf-rock on ‘Your English Summer’, making me think of bands from the past, and not them.
The Family Grave then descend into the minimalism song structure and vocal performance that made up their previous albums. The lack of variety in structure and vocal performance makes the musical step forward, ‘Get Together’, sound like earlier work. Familiar chords and the aforementioned elements – repeated in ‘Stormy Weather’, ‘The Children’, and ‘Start Again’ – overshadow the meaningful messages in these songs.
A track like ’Valentine’s Day’ shows the band’s potential. The brooding, travelling bass and the beating of tom drums create a soundscape for an apocalyptic tale. “Passed through some sleepy towns where none of the people would dream/Drove through a country where no one could hear themselves scream”, Jon sings. He goes deep like he used to, by contemplating the similarities he sees in himself. Empathy comes into the landscape with the refrain, “There’s a whole lot of love in this world”.
Old Songs For Kids has joyful and soulful moments, but steers clear of expansion.
Find out more about The Family Grave on his Facebook, X, Instagram, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Spotify.
