Review Summary: "Don't call this a comeback."
Grinspoon are back with another album, but with a catch. Most of the elements that made them who they are, are now gone, you won't find any songs like "DCX 3" or "More Than You Are" on here. You will find songs that sound like anything else you expect from Australia Radio rock music, Simple Catchy hooks, Basic drums, Bass is there and sounding good but not jaw-dropping and the lyrics are awful.
Are there any positive's about this album? The only one i have notice is there is a few short snappy songs which sound like Grinspoon are trying to be Grinspoon again. But the fall short of trying to sound like themselves. The only Decent thing's about this album are that Phil Jamieson the vocalist seems to be trying to do something new with his voice which is both a positive and a negative, Its a positive because its nice to see him try and do something new and it works well with some of the songs, its also a negative because some of the songs it doesn't work at all that well. Another up is how catchy some of the songs are, Take the lead single "passerby" For example, The Generic chorus is bound to get stick in you're head.
"Passer by pass me by to love you still
to love you still
to love you."
The negatives are everywhere on this album, Such as what some people i know call the "techno" part in "passerby" Which is just a simple bass and drum beat. The bad lyrics which i said at the start, and most of the music on this album is Terrible. From badly done hard rock riffs ( Heard in "Tightrope and "Emergence") to what you would expect to hear on the Radio ( Songs like "Another sun" "Carry on" and "Final Reward") This album is what one would call a push in the wrong direction, Most of the heavy guitar and bass is taken out, and due to that, the vocals seem to be lacking any energy at all in most songs. What made Grinpoon who they are seems to be lost. Maybe we can hope for another comeback.
Change may be needed in the music industry, to create something new and fresh, that's what most bands aim to do. Did Grinspoon try and make something new? No not at all.
Song picks:
Passerby (if you want to get a good feeling of what this album sounds like)
Battleground (Hands down the best from this album, Sounds like its trying to mix the old sound with this sound, it kind of works)
