Andy Grammar was discovered busking in Santa Monica, and the rest has been a growing catalog of successful live and studio work. His debut album was released in 2011 and there have been regular releases ever since. 

With the title of These Tears, this song was going to always be a melancholy number and the words paint a picture of loss. These Tears refers to the first few days at the end of a relationship, where the hurt of separation is at its rawist. Lyrically, the words flow gently over a calm backdrop of music to match the feeling of loss, but the singer has been there before and knows what to do! 

One thing that I think identifies a confident songwriter, and ultimately a good song is how much the final production layers other elements of sound. Obviously this isn’t always the case, but here the simplicity of each dimension of the song reinforces what the end product should sound like. To start our journey, there is a very clean guitar that is prominent through the song, guiding the way for the vocals. Andy Grammer has a good range to his voice with falsetto working as well as his more natural octave. With quiet backing vocals being added as the song builds, the overall balance fits the feel of a song that is titled These Tears and works beautifully to tell a sad story.

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.