Build Something Better

Grace Petrie is a Leicester-born singer-songwriter and musical activist who sounds better, and angrier, with every new album. She started recording back in 2006, and six years later was part of the 11-person Anti-Capitalist Roadshow project along with the likes of Peggy Seeger, Leon Rosselson and Robb Johnson. The success of her last album, Connectivity, also released on the ‘DIY’ The Robot Needs Home Collective label back in 2022, led to an impressive spate of global touring. Now comes Build Something Better, a glorious mixture of blistering folk-rock fury matched against equally impressive personal and acoustic songs that show off her fine, no-nonsense vocals and ability to write powerful and memorable melodies. Produced by Frank Turner, with whom she has toured, the album starts and ends with her furious critique of the UK. In ‘The Best Country in the World’ she laments the lack of compassion, over-crowded prison cells and ‘beaches full of shit,’ while ‘English Culture’ chronicles mortgage payments and hunger. In ‘Meanwhile in Texas’, Petrie extends her attack to the American far right, while the exuberant and positive ‘Fixer Upper’ offers hope for the future. On all those songs, Petrie is backed by a gutsy, full-tilt band dominated by percussion and fiddle, but elsewhere she switches to acoustic guitar for the likes of ‘King and Country’ and the charming and personal love song ‘If I Were To Outlive You’.