REVIEW: Greye — Over My Head (SINGLE)
“Have I lost my touch? Have I said too much? Am I out of my depth?” ponders singer Hannah Summer in the new single “Over My Head” by her critically-acclaimed rock band Greye, and while her vocal has a lot of spunk in it, her melodic depth is what really wins my affection in this track more than anything else. She’s got such a ferocious bite to her delivery coupled with a real sensibility for creating stimulating harmonies, and in today’s hard rock underground, these aren’t the sort of attributes any of us can afford to dismiss as potential one-off luck.
WEBSITE: https://greyemusic.com/
There’s definitely a lot of classic rock influence over the structure of this song, specifically with the way the chorus comes together. Led by Summer’s soaring vocal, the tempo modulates and we shift into the most cathartic stage of the track with the bass somewhat lagging behind, but this feels completely deliberate on Greye’s part. They’re cultivating anxiety against the release created by the lyrics, and the clash of the two emotions ends up producing the most incendiary and enthralling moment of So Far So Good. This is a truly complete piece of music, and it’s a good exhibit of what the band’s rivals should be striving for.
The furious urgency driving the percussion home to us in “Over My Head” has a big effect on how we interpret the passionate verses here, but at no point does the adrenaline in the rhythm translate as rushing from the drummer. Every one of these players sounds very disciplined and in control, never relying on the person beside them when contributing something to the whole of the track. There’s no slacking in this crew, and you don’t have to be a professional music critic to hear that in the performance they give in this release.
Summer’s singing undeniably injects the grittier, guitar-focused parts of “Over My Head” with melodic ribbonry when we the audience need it the most, and though this might have reduced the explosiveness of the composition with another vocalist conveying the words, she’s got the right chops to really own both the verses and the overdriven harmonies they’re framed by. It’s clear nothing is motivating her performance other than a love of the high that comes with crushing the listeners with everything she — and only she — can do with the microphone in her hands.
In a jam-packed Floridian rock underground that is only going to get bigger and more noteworthy as the 2020s press on, this is one band that could be described as leading the way for both their peers and the fans who count on them for premium riffing. Greye don’t have anything to prove to anyone anymore, but they don’t play like a group of musicians who aren’t trying to edge out the competition with something a little heavier than the status quo can tolerate. They’ve got me intrigued by the prospect of a new renaissance for rock n’ roll, and I think their latest single “Over My Head” might have the same impact on you.
Colin Jordan
