Grace Petrie: There's No Such Thing As A Protest Singer

I've been keeping tabs on Grace Petrie ever since I saw her support Gavin Osborn in 2015 where I thought she was terrific. Fiercely left wing, this EP is Petrie's riposte to articles like this in The Guardian about the supposed death of the protest song. The record is bookended by its two most political songs, "I Wish The Guardian Believed That I Exist" ("the mainstream music press, well they just couldn't care less") and "God Save The Hungry", a near five minute broadside against inequality. They are compelling arguments, eloquently and melodically put.

Petrie takes us into more personal territory in the middle section of the EP. "Nobody Knows That I'm A Fraud" is charmingly self-effacing ("We could all be doing better and we could all be doing worse", I suspect there's truth in that) whilst "I've Had Worse" is a quietly moving lamentation on a lost love. The personal and political come together on "Pride", the stand-out of the six tracks, written in the wake of the Orlando shootings and delivering a defiant message of hope.

As she says, you won't find Petrie in the NME, but I suspect that's no bad thing. TNSTAAPS is a solid collection of songs from a likeable performer and one that's convinced me to buy more of her music in the future.

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