Although The Grates come from humble beginnings, it hasn't taken long for them to become known all over the world. Currently wrapping up an Australian tour in support of their debut album, The Grates have become one of Australia's biggest bands in matter of mere months. Well known for their energetic live shows and ability to make some of the most fun music in the world, The Grates are well on their way to large scale success.
The Grates
Patience Hodgson - Vocals
Alana Skyring - Drums
John Patterson - Guitar/Vocals
Just under a year ago, The Grates released their EP,
The Ouch. The Touch. Containing just four short and noisy pop songs,
The Ouch. The Touch. was a near flawless EP with very little to complain about. The first thing that fans of
The Ouch. The Touch. and fans of the band's live show will notice is that The Grates have gotten quite a bit more ambitious, moving away from the noisy fun of their EP to a more polished sounding production. While the band's live shows consist simply of a guitar-drums-vocals (and sometimes keyboards) setup,
Gravity Won't Get You High makes full use of brass sections, banjos, pianos and various percussion instruments. While some may see this as dissapointing, at the core of The Grates is still the basic guitar and drums setup that dominates their live show and first EP. The Grates are still, as they always have been, a guitar rock band.
Anyone who has experienced The Grates before knows that more than anything, this is a band who like to have fun. And essentially, that's what
Gravity Won't Get You High is; 14 tracks of pure fun. As soon as the mildly ridiculous opening track, "I Won't Survive" begins, it becomes clear that The Grates don't take themselves too seriously. Along with being fun loving, The Grates know what they are are good at and for the album's entirety, they stick to playing fun and usually loud guitar rock. No song on the record makes it over 4 and a half minutes and this is much to the album's benefit. One of the few serious tracks on the album appears in the album's centre. "Feels Like Pain" is a moody and loud track that features Patience yelling the like "Like pain! Like pain!" repeatedly in the chorus while John does his best Kurt Cobain impression for the backing vocals.
Any 14 song debut is bound to have issues and
Gravity Won't Get You High is no exception. Probably the most puzzling thing about this album is the fact that the band didn't include the fan favourite "Message", which was possibly the best moment of
The Ouch. The Touch. However, with the vast majority of tracks on this record, The Grates come very, very close to pop perfection. From the fun shoutalong that is album's first single, "19 20 20" to the bouncy rhythms of "Trampoline" to fan favourite "Sukkafish",
Gravity Won't Get You High is an incredibly solid debut from one of Australia's funnest bands. After such an impressive debut, the sky really is the limit for this Brisbane trio.
Pros
Fun, fun, fun
A ton of solid songs
Great production
Cons
The lack of "Message"
A couple of less memorable songs
FINAL RATING: 3.5/5
