John Grant: 5 Great Collaborations You Must Hear

John Grant is enjoying something of a purple patch. 

Ten years with The Czars in the late 90s/early noughties indicated Grant's gift for a candid lyric, and his first solo album, Queen of Denmark, showcased his signature combination of sinister wit with floodlit melody.

But it was 2013's Pale Green Ghosts that brought him to mainstream attention, and earned him a BRIT Award nomination for Best International Male Solo Artist the following year. 

This month's release of third record Grey Tickles, Black Pressure sees Grant at an arguably more comfortable point in his life and career, and indeed it's hard to think of another artist of his generation who commands quite the same reverence, from both audience and media.

Singular he may be, but Grant has also been distinguished by his collaborations – and Tracey Thorn's appearance on Grey Tickles, Black Pressure inspired us to mark some of his greatest pairings.

With Sinéad O'Connor

Having covered Grant's track Queen of Denmark on her 2012 album How About I Be Me (And You Be You?), Irish star Sinéad O’Connor appears on four songs from his second LP Pale Green Ghosts – the highlight, surely, being the simultaneous bombast and self-deprecation of GMF: 

“I really love the human being and artist she is,” Grant said of O'Connor when we spoke to him for the first time in 2013. “She has a great instinct about how to be, in a specific context, with her voice.”

With the BBC Philharmonic

Grant's long-time collaborator Fiona Brice has composed the string parts for all three of his albums, and in 2014 was able to fulfil a long-shared dream: to write full orchestral arrangements for a large number of Grant's songs.

The project was part of the BBC Philharmonic Presents season and debuted in a two-hour concert at the orchestra's MediaCityUK studio that October, broadcast by BBC Radio 6Music.

John Grant with the BBC Philharmonic. Photo: Gemma Sweeney, BBC.

Performing for the first time with a 60-strong orchestra was “a little bit scary,” Grant told 6Music's Tom Ravenscroft, “but I got that over with when I sang with Boy George a couple of weeks ago.” (Grant had been guest vocalist for a performance of Culture Club's Colour by Numbers, also part of the BBC Phil series.)

Read our report from the BBC Philharmonic show.

With Tracey Thorn

The first single from Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, Disappointing features Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn on guest vocals.

More than just providing backup, Thorn – herself a frequent collaborator, having worked with Massive Attack and Jens Lekman – plays the languid foil to Grant's baritone, the two volleying verses over an electronic faultline, then tumbling headlong into that swooning, light-headed chorus. 

Of working with Thorn, Grant recently told us “She’s a big one for me. A friend of mine from high school said to me the other day: ‘You’re living a really weird version of all of the dreams you had when we went to high school together.’ And it's true!"

With Hercules & Love Affair

Dons of meaningful modern disco, Hercules & Love Affair have made a trademark of working with distinctive vocalists, from Antony Hegarty to Gustaph.

Kindred spirits from Denver, Colorado, John Grant and Hercules' Andy Butler finally got to collaborate in 2012 on two tracks from Hercules' The Feast of the Broken Heart album, I Try To Talk To You and Liberty.

With Goldfrapp

Invited onstage at the Royal Albert Hall in November last year, Grant joined Alison Goldfrapp and crew for a spellbinding rendition of Nancy and Lee's Some Velvet Morning, as well as Seventh Tree's Monster Love.

Grant will return to the Royal Albert Hall in June 2016, this time taking one of the world's most coveted stages for himself and topping off a tour that also takes in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (26 Jan), Leeds Town Hall (5 Feb), Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (7 Feb) and Manchester Albert Hall (8 Feb).