Hold onto your face masks, folks! The soundtrack of summer 2021 has arrived and it’s one hell of a ride.
Alternative rock quintet, Grouplove, announced the release of their fifth studio album, “This is This,” two days before sharing it with the world, and one year after releasing their 4th album, “Healer.”
Speaking to James Corden on “The Late Late Show,” Grouplove singer Hannah Hooper said, “Three weeks into the pandemic, none of us were going to become professional bakers, and none of us were going to get super fit, so we went back, and we wrote music.”
If their rapid-fire release tactic causes you a little whiplash, know that it’s a small price to pay for this rock-charged album. At 33 minutes, “This is This” is tiny but mighty.
It’s a breath of fresh air for rock fans, meant for driving down an open road with the windows rolled down as warm air blasts your face. “This is This” opens with “Primetime,” a production worthy of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” given its riotous charm. A number that can only be described as indie-pop gold.
The album’s second song, “This is the End” plays off the excitement of its predecessor and hooks you with its distorted guitar intro. Hooper’s voice delivers the lyrics with a rawness reminiscent of Courtney Love’s “Hole” — the grunge vibe is on point in this three-minute track. The children’s voices that punctuate the song are creepy, to say the least, but do make a nice segue into the music box opening of “Deadline,” the album’s first single.
“Deadline” is a pop hit straight out of a 1980s birthday party, which would probably be held at a roller skating rink.. The song exudes happiness, right down to the unrehearsed laughter at the end. Get ready to dance and chant along with Hooper’s interspersed cries of “I think I lost my teeth / Down the street / Come marry me,” in the style of Toni Basil’s “Hey, Mickey.”
The music video for “Deadline” appropriately begins with an old-school TV set displaying the band members in colorful pajamas and matching instruments. They perform the song inside a small apartment showcasing guitars decorated with paint and glued-on plastic jewels. This could easily be a quarantine anthem, yet it carefully avoids dating itself by sidestepping any direct reference to the pandemic.
The innocent simplicity of “Oxygen” is quickly broken by the raunchy guitars of “Just What You Want,” and its opening line, “All my life I wanted to be better / But there’s something about my middle finger.” It’s the opposite side of adolescence — screaming primitive rock with a singable melody and a groovy beat.
Calling upon their California roots, “Seagulls” sounds like a day on Venice Beach. The lyrics indicate a loss of innocence, describing a changing landscape of closed record stores and missed opportunities. It paints a picture of growing up in a city, looking for love and experimenting with drugs. Hooper returns to her Courtney Love impression, mixing it with a dream-like middle section complete with 1950s doo-wop harmonies straight off the “Grease” soundtrack.
The dream-like haze continues into “Shake That Ass,” a meditation on modern technology. It feels about as surreal as this year has been. The album as a whole does not comment explicitly on the pandemic, which is probably why it sounds so exciting and refreshing, yet this moment of reflection fits in nicely.
The last track on the album is a genuine rock anthem. A reminder that crazy things are happening to all of us, but none of us are alone. “Shout” is catharsis in song, so blast this one from your room as you weather the next few months of social distancing. It’s a strong note to end on, and it perfectly rounds off the album’s string of soon-to-be hit singles.
Email Holly Seefeldt at [email protected].
