I always design albums to be listened to straight through. It’s a huge relief to finally have “Fondness”, available everywhere now for you to do that very thing. One of the by products of having a child is that you really get to see how much potential growth there is in a single year of life. My daughter has gone from slug to shift leader in what feels like no time, and it has put a lot of things in perspective.
Looking back, that is what “Fondness, Etc“. is about. They say that memory is like a game of telephone: each time you think back, you don’t remember the event itself you actually just remember the last time you remembered that event. A copy of a copy.
Long celebrated as one of America’s most inventive DIY singer-songwriters, Shakey Graves (born Alejandro Rose-Garcia) has built a singular career on experimentation and emotional honesty.
“Fondness, etc”. feels like a window into his most personal world yet – and a full creative reset – placing emphasis on lo-fi sound and analog warmth, packed with soft vocals, haunted guitars, experimental textures, and tender imperfections.
A long parade of small, important days and little moments fading and turning into sound bites. All the sharp details will inevitably fade, making each one more precious than the last. An artificial collage arranged by your phone.
Yet, one of the magical things about music is that, in some ways, it works as a proxy hippocampus, a save point in time. Hearing a song can flood you with so many different sensory emotions and memories, and repeat listens can bring you back to where you first heard it, what it made you think of then, and what its relevance is to you now.
Making the music adds another insane layer to it.These songs, for me, will always bring me back to this tenuous and sweet moment in life: watching my friends and family age. Looking at my hands for obvious signs of wear and tear. Recording in the mornings. Solving little stupid problems and dropping the ball on big life stuff. Being tired but happy. Futilely pouring boiling water on the ants in my yard to keep them away from my fat baby’s ankles.
All that will has been mashed up and put into your hands for you to create new memories with.
And somewhere down the line, when we hear this music, we will all meet up at different places in our minds, in the future, and wonder where all the time went.
Proud of where we have been, with no way back.
Only up, out, and forward.
Shakey Graves’ songs explore trying to do better and holding onto fleeting beauty in a chaotic world. The title is a twist on “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” delivered with classic Shakey self- effacing charm – capturing moments of life, love, and fatherhood with striking vulnerability and sonic exploration. An album built purely for joy, reminding us that the quietest moments often hold the most profound beauty.
The Fat Angel Sings 