“The Love Umbrella” is the debut album of Grady, an LA-based artist who has been producing music since 2016. His sound is pop at its core but has also been described as indie and electronic. Grady didn’t produce music consistently until 2019, but since then he has gained a steady following and now has over one million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

His album “The Love Umbrella” was released in October of 2021, and included three different singles that were released earlier that year. Before this first album, Grady released many singles and a few EPs, but “The Love Umbrella” stands apart from them through its unique arrangement. 

“The Love Umbrella” tells the story of a fictional version of Grady and his character’s journey through love with a woman named Jade. The album is structured in the form of a radio interview, with 30 second scenes of an interviewer talking with the fictional version of Grady interspersed throughout the songs. Each track of “The Love Umbrella” seamlessly flows into the next, making the whole album feel like one long song. This allows listeners to feel completely immersed in the story they’re hearing, while the interview interludes allow the album to not drag on endlessly.

We get our first taste of Grady’s transition style with the opening track, “The Love Umbrella Introduction.” We begin with the interviewer welcoming Grady into the studio, and welcoming listeners to enjoy the music they’re about to hear. A melody begins to play in the background as the interviewer finishes speaking with, “The studio is telling me he’s just arriving, so we’ll be hearing from him shortly. In the meantime, plеase enjoy-.” This sentence is cut off by a vibrant burst of drums and guitar as Grady’s layered voice proclaims the word, “Love!” and the second track, “Arms Open Wide”, begins. 

The music on the album ranges from intimate confessions over a single acoustic guitar in a song like “Javelin” to romantic-comedy-level declarations of love, complete with brass instruments and full choruses in the track, “SO GOOD”. Each song feels like its own story, while also fitting perfectly into the larger narrative of the album. The last track, “Best Friend”, closes with Grady and his friends celebrating in the studio, as the interviewer closes out the album with the words, “One last time, until next time, thank you for joining us under The Love Umbrella.”

Grady has already begun work on his next album, “Cherry”, and has announced the first single will be released by the end of this month.