Connectivity

Grace Petrie has her huge following of loyal fans and their propensity for singing in mind on her aptly-named new record, Connectivity. Instrumentation, such as the muscular fiddle on ‘Haul Away’ and ‘Storm to Weather’, and the jaunty guitar of ‘Romance Addict’, is purely to round out the sound, as the focus remains firmly on the lyrics, message, and upbeat energy of her guitar.

The anthemic refrain appears frequently throughout, and with a lengthy tour across the latter quarter of 2021, fans will be getting the lyrics down and strengthening their arm muscles to hold aloft their lighters in homage. But Petrie is always one step ahead and understands how this power and potential can be wielded by the inauthentic. In ‘Galway’, she tells us, unaccompanied, that she can’t compete with homegrown talent, that ‘she’s the worst thing on tonight/and it’s 10 euros in.’ It is this self-awareness, this unabashed truth-telling, even when she herself is on the receiving end of the criticism, that has sealed her reputation as an excellent musician and why – thankfully – she’ll ‘never be Ed Sheeran.’