"Hard Grammar" is the 2nd full length CD by Seattle based Graig Markel. The album explores the places your mind goes when it's late at night and you've spent too much time alone examining your problems. All of his songs are infused with a touch of soul and a crystalline honesty that leave you warm and a bit unsettled. In all his songs, Markel seems to be yearning for something, balancing bouts of emptiness and anger. Actually, Randy Newman meets D'Angelo isn't a bad way of thinking about most of Markel's music, which combines the confessional singer-songwriter approach and the slick processed soul tendencies of the '70s. Highlights on this album include "D'Azz", a sensual slow-burning shoo-be-doo-wop torch song, and "Live Without It" a rollicking pale-faced R&B number, plus 8 more. "An album unlike any other you've recently heard." -- The Stranger "Markel is a songwriter with a wealth of talent" -- Exclaim "Some of the sweetest pop vocalizing heard this year" -- Alternative Press These sexy tunes are the ultimate weapon in your next romantic conquest. The album your love life is waiting for. -- CMJ Kelso Jacks I only hope Beck/TLC can hear this and that they're feeling inadequate. -- Magnet killer grip inside a velvet glove: Markel has the power to make us wonder about the man behind the sound. -- Pulse Paul D. Dickson