The Czars: Best of
Queen of Denmark, John Grant’s first solo album, seemed to arrive from nowhere in 2010. Here was a singer-songwriter with a unique voice evoking disparate wellsprings Eric Carmen, Randy Newman and Lionel Richie. When taken with a dramatically affecting songwriting sensibility and arresting, self-lacerating lyrics, all of this rendered the album instantly impactful.
The immediate backstory was that Midlake had heard Grant’s songs, were taken with them and volunteered to be his backing band on the sessions which led to Queen of Denmark. Grant himself was then in a bad way, in thrall to drink and drugs. But he hadn’t arrived from nowhere.
Prior to Queen of Denmark, Grant had made six albums with The Czars, the band he had formed in Denver, Colorado in 1994. They split in 2004. Best of draws from three of them: 2000’s Before… But Longer, 2002’s The Ugly People vs the Beautiful People and 2004’s appropriately titled Goodbye. A cautious version of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”, previously heard on a comp, is Best of's final track.
All three albums were issued by the British label Bella Union whose Simon Raymonde, in the admirably frank liner notes, says: “John Grant, the singer of a band called The Czars from Denver, was one of the first people to send me a demo and even though I didn’t much care for it, there was a germ of something there that prompted me to write back with encouraging words. A few months later another tape arrived and it was a 100% better than the previous one.” Raymonde brought the band to Britain to record, co-produced them and played on Before… But Longer and persisted – Grant is still with Bella Union.
'Goodbye' hints strongly towards "Queen of Denmark"’s ' 'Where Dreams go to Die'
Although The Czars will be remembered as Grant's incubation vessel, they were a band. His fellow members were Roger Green (guitar), Jeff Linsenmaier (drums), Andy Monley (guitar) and Chris Pearson (bass). Nonetheless, the current-day Grant – both musically and lyrically – is evident on “Drug”, “Anger”, “Paint the Moon”, “Los” and, especially, “Goodbye”, which hints strongly towards Queen of Denmark’s “Where Dreams Go to Die”. Despite these pointers towards the future, Best of is not a compilation which overall is a prototype for either Queen of Denmark or its follow-up, 2013’s Pale Green Ghosts.
In part, this is due to The Czars lacking a peg on which they hang themselves. Despite the odd dash of pedal steel, the band were not quite their close cousins Americana or downer moodists like Bill Callahan or Will Oldham. Their music was brooding, mid-tempo rock with touches of the Seventies' slant still embraced by Grant. Most curiously, it also had an overt Radiohead influence. “Val’s” structure is recognisably Radiohead-ian and Grant’s voice is very Thom Yorke-ish on “Roger’s Song” and “Killjoy”. The now-familiar sonorousness first crops up – the collection is sequenced chronologically – on 2002’s “Drug”. Best of feels like work in progress. Individual songs are striking, but they are not fully formed evidence of a unique voice.
Apart from perhaps both Raymonde and the man himself, it’s a fair bet no one could have predicted Grant’s future from The Czars. But much of it is there already on Best of, albeit in nascent form. Hindsight is never retrospective and though these 16 songs are more than baby pictures, Best of proves it is unlikely Queen of Denmark and Pale Green Ghosts could have been what they were without Grant’s ten years honing his talent as a Czar.
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