JOHN GRANT – LOVE IS MAGIC

With the album’s first video celebrating the joys of dog tricks, JG is clearly in a happier place these days. “Love’s a shit show that requires work,” he explains,

“but, in spite of it all, love is still magic”.

Forsaking folk-rock on his fourth album, the gay expat American (now an Icelandic resident) plunges head first into electropop. It’s considered, thoughtful and reveals things at its own pace and that’s not just the music. He’s Got His Mother’s Hips (with the year’s best video!) sees him playfully rhyming “lava lamp” with both “damp” and “stamps”; standout ballad Is He Strange is about being lovestruck; while other topics include addiction, his HIV+ diagnosis and WikiLeaks activist Chelsea Manning. At times it sounds like JG has fan-girled on Robyn’s last few records but, hey, no one’s complaining, right?

Love’s a shit show… but still magic.