Grace Bergere Is A New York Rocker Extraordinaire

you want it even darker?

First thought upon seeing Grace Bergere's cover portrait was "punk Ida Lupino" but that's not a good way to start a review since how many readers today know Ida Lupino? So let's just say a young woman with an attitude. A dark attitude. And a genuine one. She doesn't look like a poseur. It goes deep. That's before opening and playing the record and reading the lyrics.

It's difficult enough in 2025 to pull off a rock record that doesn't sound like a dated oldie, but Bergere does that and on every track. The dense, "sticky", bass walloped, guitar driven production brings to life a series of tough luck songs starting with the defeatist, heartbreaking album title opener: "It's easier if I just tune you out/All you well intentioned people/Tryna save me from myself.....find someone more deserving of your sympathy and help."

Shortly before he checked out, Leonard Cohen asked if you want it darker. Bergere delivers that on every song.

Next up is "Billy", which opens with the line "I fell through the floor of that dirty old place". It's a brutal song about betrayal but that line is hardly a metaphor. Grace Bergere's first fling with nationwide, perhaps worldwide fame was in 2008 when as a 12 year old she fell 14 stories down an apartment building chimney and obviously lived to tell about it, or as The New York Post headlined it "CHIMNEY-FALL GIRL RISES FROM ASHES". She already was a rock drummer and as this picture from when she was 10 makes obvious, she was tough then and clearly is now.

At the time she told a reporter “Everything is a bit more intense now that I’m still alive. I appreciate things that I didn’t before,” adding “You see the beauty in a lot of things that you didn’t – like walking in the park. I used to walk around with my eyes closed."

Now nearing 30 Grace Bergere has released an album that expresses a different, more difficult reality. It's hard edged and not seeking pity but the songs are tough, solid and real. Lines like "I look in the mirror and I'm gone/I haven't been person in so long", and "I would do anything to be gone", which could be self examination or otherwise. The first side ender, "Parade", offers both self pity and optimism "And I'm smiling now/I'm so lucky how/I was falling down/When he came around".

Side two isn't exactly "up with people" either and the lyrics to "Fall", the second to last song starts with a 4peat of "I wish that I could fall". It's a thing of melodic beauty and resignation. The finale, "God's to Blame" does nothing to relieve the bleakness but the horns (real) out of "Penny Lane" give it solid sense of triumphant resignation.

The players—all or mostly New York City musical veterans include drummers Eric Seftel and Bloody Rich Hutchins, guitarist Richard Dev Greene, cellist Susan Davita Mandel (yes there's a cello arrangement on one tune), trumpeter Tree Palmedo and the others—give this record solid musical power and help make it worthy of repeat listening. You'll hear dark, gritty New York City guitar driven sounds all over the record.

And the sound is fundamentally outstanding: deep, supportive bass, chiming, dense guitars, really well recorded, solid in the center drums and an overall "crank it up as loud as you like, it gets better the louder you play it.

There's a minute or so of the title tune at the end of the Pro-Ject T1 Tale story's video. I'm not surprised a viewer on YouTube heard enough there to write that he ordered the record. He will not be disappointed!

A rock triumph musically and sonically in 2025. Who'd have thought? BTW: Grace's dad took the photographs. He's know to some of you as audio electronics designer Steve Berger. (You can find the album on Bandcamp and it's also streaming on the usual streaming sites where you'll also find a version of "All Tomorrow's Parties"—a duet with Thurston Moore). Now that's perfect!

I don't know how she follows up after producing this but hopefully there will be one just as good.