Holy Shit, Holy, Holy!

Admittedly, I’m definitely more than a little late to the Geordie Greep train. I never particularly got into or was amazed by anything that he did with Black Midi, and I think that a lot of the BM songs struggle structurally because of a serious lack of ANYTHING compelling. There is so much left to be desired. A big problem I had with Black Midi is that each song would kind of get this like bombardment of ideas compressed into one song which would make the development of these concepts suffer leading to something that sounded lazy, unfinished, and quite frankly shit. There were some sprawled out instances of good music on the whacky “Hellfire” released in 2022 but at the end it kind of just left me thinking…. Ok? Like what now? There was nothing that really warranted me returning to a single Black Midi album that I had ever heard which is why I never bothered to give Geordie Greep a chance back when the rollout for this album was happening. Also, I have a strong vendetta against anything labelled as ‘prog’ or ‘art rock’ because Ants From Up There is probably the worst album that I have ever heard. It’s just fucking noise man. Like just so bad. Aaaand I’m trying to keep up this facade that I don’t own a RYM account so fuck off. However… I was doing my laundry the other day and “Holy, Holy”, the most critically acclaimed song off of Geordie Greep’s solo debut, and frankly the best one, came on during a shuffle autoplay sort of situation and I just let it play out. And let me just say man. This is a fucking bangerrrrrrr.

This manic, perverse, soyboy-esque, fucking masterclass of a track clocks in around 6 minutes. First listen? I thought it was a load of shit. But after some thorough consideration it might be one of my favorite songs of the decade. Geordie Greep(what a name), at heart, is a fucking entertainer. Everything he does musically is this avant-garde, unpredictable, theatrical shout for attention and his character sketching on Holy, Holy assembles all of these attributes into this narcissistic asshole who is DYING for people to notice him. In today’s era of cringe redpilled incels being so prominent in the media– people like Clavicular and Andrew Tate still somehow having platforms (and our lovely president), this song couldn’t be more relevant to the moment. It’s like the unironic anthem for the way that a lot of these dorks with serious insecurities present themselves and it’s fucking fantastic!!!

The gist? The song’s about an insecure narcissist. The song starts off at supersonic speed, like Greep just dropped you off in the middle of the performance with this abrasive and unhinged guitar that made my mom super uneasy. “..I’ll listen again if I choose to aggravate myself….that would be a great song to get people to leave your party…he thinks of himself as God…”. Basically, you’re a hot chick and the protagonist is trying to pick you up at the bar. “From the moment you put your hand on my knee, I knew I’d have you with ease \\ Do you come here often?” Our guy here, who we’ll call Greepy for simplicity, and creep purposes, is after your pussy with the most daring of pickup lines. The instrumental arrangements across this entire track are just fucking bonkers, drawing from Earth Wind and Fire, Steely Dan, and Frank Zappa all in the same 6 minutes doesn’t sound like it would work but it does. From jazz rock, to salsa, to a full on broadway number towards the end? What kind of crazy do you have to be to put some shit together like this man! It’s fucking brilliant!! The storytelling on this thing blew my mind and not a single ounce of this song even hints at the concept of wavering on any moment which is the reason I’m SO disappointed he ended it with a fade, though it kind of makes sense I guess. The restraint on “pussy” before we’re told how Mr. Greepy knows this lady – it’s pure theatrics. Geordie Greep belongs in a cabaret, or to direct a broadway show for this level of passion. The climax of this song is met by these heavenly harmonies arranging for this callgirl to touch Greepy’s knee at their arranged, perfect, destined fate. Greepy’s more turned on with the idea of people thinking he has sex than actually diving into that “holy pussy”. This song is so fucking bizarre, hilarious, eclectic, idiosyncratic, and genius! Geordie Greep’s personality shines through exponentially on this one and it’s like an R rated version of the solo that a Disney villain gets when coming on screen for the first time.

If I haven’t jerked him enough, then I’ll tell you that I think this song is great. Not typically my style, but extremely enjoyable and one of my recent favorites. If my mom doesn’t like it, then that’s how I know it’s destined to be a banger. The rest of the album? I thought it was cool. I thought it was definitely better than anything from Black Midi. I just wonder, where does Geordie go after this? There are not many directions to go after he dismounts the novelty horse of absurdity, but if it’s anything even half as interesting as this song then I’m excited as hell about it.