Grayscale, Baby Blue (Reworked)
Fearless Records

Punk goes acoustic – well, pop-punk is famed enough for the way its acoustic tunes tug on heartstrings, so any acoustic interpretation of pop-punk must be a sad, scream-along three minutes of emotional catharsis, right? WRONG – Grayscale prove with Baby Blue (Reworked) that reimagined pop-punk can just be an absolute dance party. The single heralds the news of an upcoming EP, Live From The Barber Shop Studios, that features reworkings of Baby Blue, Painkiller Weather, and What’s On Your Mind, and the first taste has definitely caught our attention.

Baby Blue was a standout from Grayscale’s 2019 record Nella Vita (though to be fair, every track was a standout, hence why it was one of our top ten albums of the year!). With its almost 1975-esque riffs and irresistible hooks, it was the ultimate anthem, despite the darker side of the lyrics. And reworked, it’s somehow become even more danceable! Gone are the bubbling guitar lines, gone are the infectious riffs – they’re replaced with trumpet breaks, shimmering tambourines, flourishes of melody that manage to bulk out the song despite being super light. The reimagination’s high point comes after the second chorus when piano descends into an absolute musical carnival of funk that constitutes the bridge, and sticks around for a sunburst of an ending.

Grayscale have hinted that each track on the EP is going to be ‘very different’, and Baby Blue is an intro that couldn’t be more promising. We once described Grayscale as ‘the pop punk band who can do it all’, and on LFTBSS, it looks like they’re going to prove us right once again!

Live From The Barber Shop Studios is out July 29th.