Description
Grieve is the sole album by the American alternative rock band Sincerely Paul, released on Blonde Vinyl Records in 1991, distributed by Spectra Distribution. (The band alsp released an independent custom-made cassette demo in 1989.) The album was recorded by Dave Hackbarth at Neverland Studios in Los Alamitos, California; with the band producing. Mixed by Hackbarth, Brian Webster, and Gene Eugene of Adam Again fame.
Sincerely Paul features Jim Preston Strawn on vocals, Michael Hackett on synthesizer, Ray Flowers on guitar, Brian Singer on bass and Mike Baker drums. (After the band broke up in 1993, a couple of the guys formed a band called Slide, which had a song called “The Black and the Blue” on an R.E.X. sampler.)
This album is being re-issued soon – probably in less that a week or so after you are reading this. So let’s take a listen to the original first before we get a look at the re-issue next time.
I first heard Grieve when I was a recovering metal-head. So at that time, I gravitated towards songs like the title track, just due to their intensity. Or maybe it was just that freaky, cool sound going on in the background. Yes, there is intensity to this album that can attract fans of heavy music with an open mind. But there is so much more going on with this album.
You can tell from the opening track (appropriately titled «Open»), that the goal here is to be epic. I think they achieved that and more. This is moody, atmospheric music that will find fans among the gothic crowd as much as it will with the alternative crowd. As a bass player myself, I love how the bass guitar (and keyboards and drums for that matter) are equal in the mix with the guitars – not buried under distortion. The songs have a good amount of space in them, which creates a great dynamic atmosphere about the songs.
As was pointed out in the interview, the lyrics here are very honest. Pain and hurt are not covered up. The album is called Grieve after all – so don’t expect happy fun Jesus hippie music. But I would also agree with James and Mike that hope can be found if you care to dig in and listen. I am really looking forward to the re-issue to hear the unreleased songs from around this era – especially the popular demo tape that got them so much attention back in the day. [Matt Crosslin, Down The Line Magazine, April 2009]
Against all odds, this classic album by Sincerely Paul has been re-issued… and one sweet re-issue it is! Not only do you get the full original album re-mastered, you also get a full extra disc of bonus material. Grieve has been reviewed here before, so I’ll just briefly touch on the re-mastering on disc one: yes, you can hear a difference between the original disc and the re-mastered disc. That would be worth the price alone, but there is more.
The main value of this re-issue for fans is really the disc of extra songs. Contained here are all of the unreleased songs off of the early Sincerely Paul demos, as well as some live tracks. The quality of the early demo material is great – it is hard to tell that they were demos at one time. Stylistically, these early songs are less gothic and more rock than songs that came later. The passion and energy are still there. These songs just showcase a band evolving in style.
The live songs are the real treat, even for hardcore Sincerely Paul fans that might already own the demos. Some of the live songs are from Grieve, but some are new songs that have never been released, including an early version of the upcoming SLIDE single «January». The second disc closes with a sweet early demo version of the «The Black and the Blue» (later recorded by SLIDE for a compilation album in the early 1990s). These unreleased songs serve as glimpse into what could have been Sincerely Paul’s second album – but sadly will be as close as we’ll ever get to knowing.
Combine all of this with well designed and informative liner notes, and you have one of the best re-issues in recent memory. If you are a fan of the band, or even Gothic music in general, you have to get yourself a copy of this album. [Matt Crosslin, Down The Line Magazine, August 2009]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/grieve-the-2-disc-definitive-edition/id330513186)
CD tracklist:
01. Open – 1:45
02. Nineteen Years – 4:25
03. Bare My Soul – 5:20
04. Drug – 6:21
05. House Of Fire – 6:20
06. Shame Last Sunday – 4:18
07. Those That Kill – 5:18
08. Grieve – 5:05
09. Wait – 6:19
10. Helpless – 2:20
11. Turnaway – 7:01
12. Close – 1:29
Note: Remastered and re-issued by Slide Music Group in 2009 as a double disc album featuring 11 previously unreleased songs.
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