Grace Ives’ Fire 2 is built on an excitable feeling of accomplishment, in which the problematic ‘own worst enemy’ has gotten a grip and ran toward the sunlit green field their former selfishness felt they were owed, that their current, improved self has earned. It may as well be the final song of Girlfriend; an album that propels from Grace’s self-described rock bottom of drinking and lying to focus on the better phoenix that may rise from such ashes.
With an early MGMT synth patch and garage beat in hand, Fire 2, somehow, manifests as a sort of heartland rock endeavour, on which an astounded, yet breathless, voice travels through earthy terrain. It’s in Grace’s sincerity, her humanism, that Avalanche obtains the same effect, despite being a towering indietronica tune that tests its own foundation with built-up piano. Its wish is to reclaim that handsome confidence Grace once had, and she sings with the utmost confidence, akin to her insistence on shaking trouble on Trouble; synthy and, yes, heartlands-y.
Through these unexpected sounds, and the differences that conjoin her songs, Grace is repeatedly successful in claiming a new stimulant. This is singer-songwriting music that does whatever it can to pump itself up, separating itself from 2022’s Janky Star, which was hardly one-note, but nowhere as loud about abandoning limits.
Owe it to Ariel Rechtshaid and John DeBold’s co-production alongside Ives, helping her to expand and really display those differences. Girlfriend is so aesthetically brilliant; the arpeggios and molten, EDM-style interpolations that abuse the chorus of Dance With Me; the psychedelic pop of Neither You Nor I, like an indie-friendly version of Duffy’s Mercy; the stomping, indietronica beats that make Stupid Bitches feel so triumphant, before spasming with a modern synth frenzy on the hook, like a fistfight contested by the ‘90s and present day.
You may also owe it to Grace honouring her influences and contemporaries. She has supported Lykke Li, and My Mans melds a Lykke-Lana Del Rey coldness with a subtle fairground vibe in its keyboards. The Lorde-isms of What If – mainly in Grace’s singing – are unignorable.
The album is sexy where needed, but also introverted where needed, stressing the importance of reflection’s best results claimed on one’s own time. With Now I’m, the focus is all on oneself; a soundtrack-y waltz on which Grace slow dances with herself as her partner, her girlfriend. She sees something better on the horizon because of it, before getting back to where she once was on Garden; a dishevelled, haunting, yet swoon-inducing counter-waltz.
These tunes are reminders of what Girlfriend would’ve been if placed in unambitious hands – there is a vast multitude of lonely, coming-of-age singer-songwriter albums dealt primarily by an acoustic guitar and voice box – but even they are great examples of Grace Ives’ subversion of the genre. Her third album is evocative, stimulating, and musically rich.
Best tracks – Fire 2 – Garden – Stupid Bitches.
Rating – 8 out of 10
