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Critic Reviews
100
It’s unclear whether this is a new beginning, or a valedictory last hurrah, but in a way it doesn’t matter; it’s beautiful and utterly captivating in its own way and, after all the band and Lytle have been through, that’s triumphant enough.
9y
100
Yes, Last Place is sad, but it's so melodious, so warm and so peculiar that it’s difficult to feel anything but love for it.
9y
90
It's a subtler and darker sibling to The Sophtware Slump or Just Like The Fambly Cat.
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3y
87
In their inherent sullenness, Grandaddy finds ways to create happy/sad vignettes that appeal to the hopeless romantic in ways that are nearly invasive.
9y
84
‘Last Place’ isn’t destined to topple ‘The Sophtware Slump’ as Grandaddy’s finest moment, but it is an excellent addition to their short catalogue. It’s a record that will feel instantly familiar to fans without ever becoming predictable.
9y
83
In truth, Last Place feels like running into a once-dear friend. You make plans to see each other again over a meal or a drink, but even as you head off in opposite directions, delighted by the run-in, you aren’t sure when you’ll see them again. Nevertheless, you’re glad they’re doing well, if only for a moment.
9y
83
It may not be The Sophtware Slump volume 2, but it doesn’t need to be, it’s a solid entry on par with the rest of their celebrated catalog and every fan from a decade ago will hope this reunion is far from over.
9y
80
It may be over a decade since their last album, but when Last Place chugs into life with Why We Won’t, it feels as if Grandaddy haven’t aged a day.
6y
80
This week’s break-up album is Grandaddy’s first release in eleven years, though it’s effectively the work of Jason Lytle, beavering away in his new studio in Portland even as his relationship collapses around him.
9y
80
Last Place is more sophisticated and less self-consciously wacky than some of the Californians’ previous releases, and better for it.
9y
80
Grandaddy is no longer a detached soundtrack hovering over life, it's articulating within it, and we are getting it in a whole new way.
9y
80
Lytle addresses sadness with a sweeping grandiosity, where the stories he conjures are both sides amusingly satirical and deceptively foolish.
9y
80
If not quite as compelling overall as their best work like Sophtware Slump, it's a worthy successor to the very good Just Like the Fambly Cat and a welcome return for the "band."
9y
75
A collection that isn’t going to win over the world but might just help you make more sense out of it.
9y
75
On Last Place, Grandaddy feels at home, so much so that it’s almost as if the band never really left.
9y
72
Last Place is a fittingly contented throwback/possible farewell.
9y
70
Still intimate, personal, and painfully relatable, Grandaddy’s observant indifference makes ‘Last Place’ as plaintively imperfect as we could have hoped for.
9y
70
‘Last Place’ is an occasionally misty-eyed but very welcome return. A broken but pretty mess.
9y
70
It’s not the second coming of “The Sophtware Slump.” But it also isn’t trying to be.
8y
65
With this new album, Grandaddy may sound trendy, but they started doing this long before it was cool.
8y
60
They sound exhausted, right where we left them.
9y
60
Both in the lyrical themes and in its sound, we are floating in familiar space.
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5y
60
If it’s understood as a more human album then it works, but it is held back a little by the vestiges of the earlier, broken down and burnt out, Grandaddy.
9y
60
Great to have back that little razor edge that Lytle loses when he steps away from his bandmates, but this might be the last time he gets away with it without a major rethink.
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3y
60
Everything you'd expect from a Grandaddy record is here — the melancholy synths, the bitter sweetly romantic lyrics, the warnings about the perils of the digital age — but the feeling is older, different. I am not sure where the band will go after this, but count me among those hoping that they might head in a new direction.
9y
60
It’s heart-breaking and at times powerfully so, but it also shuns the listener, forcing them to a place where Grandaddy risk drifting once more into obscurity.
9y
It was to no one's surprise Grandaddy split soon after 'Fambly Cat' - what was more of a shock was that they regrouped in 2017 to record a new album.
The good news is they didn't disgrace themselves...the bad news is it's still their weakest album, the appropriately/knowingly titled 'Last Place' ending up even less consistent than its predecessor.
This album does boast a few winners, in particular the closing pair hint at what could have been; 'A Lost Machine' even suggests an apocalyptic ... read more
'Last Place' is filled with a beautiful sadness that appealed to me straight away. Everything on this album just feels right, the melancholy, the peacefulness and the warmt. My favorite album of the year so far, and that was not at all what i expected when i started listening.
Favorite Moments: Way We Won't, Evermore, That's What You Get for Gettin Out Of Bed, This Is The Part
Way We Won't -- 10/10
Brush With the Wild -- 8/10
Evermore -- 9/10
Oh She Deleter -- Interlude
Thje Boat is in the Barn -- 7/10
Chek Injin -- 7/10
I Don't Wanna Live Here Anymore -- 6/10
That's What Ya Get For Getting Outta Bed -- 7/10
This is the Part -- 8/10
Jed the 4th -- 7/10
A Lost Machine -- 10/10
Songbird Son -- 7/10
Pretty strong indietronica opening, bit of a middling Americana middle, and a nice soft ending
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Track List
| 1 | Way We Won't 4:21 | 90 |
| 2 | Brush With the Wild 4:08 | 83 |
| 3 | Evermore 4:39 | 86 |
| 4 | Oh She Deleter :( 0:52 | 68 |
| 5 | The Boat Is in the Barn 4:38 | 83 |
| 6 | Chek Injin 2:09 | 72 |
| 7 | I Don't Wanna Live Here Anymore 2:32 | 75 |
| 8 | That's What You Get for Gettin' Outta Bed 3:35 | 83 |
| 9 | This Is the Part 4:26 | 79 |
| 10 | Jed the 4th 2:04 | 79 |
| 11 | A Lost Machine 6:11 | 90 |
| 12 | Songbird Son 4:18 | 83 |
Total Length: 43 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Gigwise |
| #16 | / | Diffuser |
| #19 | / | Digital Trends |
| #34 | / | State |
| #39 | / | No Ripcord |
| #48 | / | Drowned in Sound |
| #57 | / | Fopp |
| #68 | / | Under the Radar |
| #74 | / | Louder Than War |
| #76 | / | Rough Trade |
| / | Glide |
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