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Do not miss Andy Grammer when he brings ‘The Big Stupid Heart Tour’ to Sugar Hill on August 9 at The Bowl with Walk Off The Earth!

You might be surprised Andy Grammer called his new album Monster. He was too. Long known as one of the most optimistic bright lights in the pop singer-songwriter sphere, Grammer found himself fighting demons and finding new corners of himself, places he hadn’t wanted to venture before. “Being happy, anger is my vulnerability,” he says. “I didn’t know how to deal with getting in touch with anger. I just pretended it wasn’t there.” Grammer embarked on a long mental health journey that mirrored an exploratory five-year interim between albums which, of course, happened to coincide with a particularly tumultuous five years for all of us. After everything, Monster, arriving October 4, became a document of someone walking through a fire they never wanted to even look at, and what happens when they emerge on the other side.

Like a good therapy session, Monster excavates life from one angle after another. Lead single “I Do” features Grammer singing alongside country music duo Maddie & Tae, in a song written about Grammer’s wife Aijia that both playfully and thoughtfully depicts how the couple navigates the ups and downs of long relationships. “I sing ‘Even when I don’t love you, I do,’” he says. “Aijia and I have a standard of love for each other that’s bigger than the moment. We’re both committed to something larger.” The couple wrote and recorded other material for the record, including “Grey,” a song that mulls over whether love will survive as we age, and “Unforgivable,” an unflinching track influenced by a friend’s divorce. Pain and euphoria mingle freely. Grammer reclaims his “nice guy” reputation after getting stung in “Save A Spot In The Back”; playing on “nice guys finish last,” he proclaims “Save a spot in the back for me.” “Magic” surges forward like a classic indie-pop banger while reminiscing on loss and the unexplainable in life that, nevertheless, give it all its vibrancy. The song has an extra layer of poignance as the last composition Grammer wrote with his longtime collaborator Bram Inscore prior to Inscore’s tragic death.

Now 40, Grammer’s seen his fair share of real shit, and the songs on Monster capture it all — the ugly and the beautiful sitting alongside one another, each making no sense without its counterpart. From the hurt and confusion of the album’s opening, these songs trace Grammer’s process of re-centering himself with what really matters in life before concluding with “Friends And Family.” Grammer sings of all the wild turns his life has taken, but decides “It all means nothing without friends and family.” It’s a portrait of a man who has wrestled with parts of himself, and found what’s really important.

“I think people will understand the journey — from acknowledging the anger, leaving and experiencing things, and then coming home to realize you’re not able to be your full self without these things,” Grammer concludes. “And when we all end up singing it together at the top of our lungs — that’s what makes life explosive.”