Album Review: Gruntbucket - Songs From An Empty Room

15 May 2012 | 5:34 pm | The Boomeister

If you like your music imbued with a little of The 13th Floor Elevators, Spiritualized and The Black Crowes then wrap your ears around this lot, you won’t be sorry.

Not only is Songs From An Empty Room a great title for an album but also a touch of class by the band giving a cleverly disguised nod to those usually relegated to the background in the recording process. The second album from Gruntbucket sees the three-piece again link up with the vast majority of the team that assisted them in smashing out the ripping 2010 debut album, Receiving. Recorded by Ryan Nelson and Andrew McGee, this time it's mixed and mastered by Lindsay Gravina (Rowland S Howard, Magic Dirt).

The eight tracks are still based on the foundations of Mikey Madden's (The Vandas) songwriting skills, guitar virtuosity and vocals, enhanced by the steady, rollickin' bass style of Tim McCormack and the almost laissez-faire backbeat supplied by drummer Dave Watkins. Even with the additional guitar highlights added by not only Nelson and McGee but that vagabond troubadour Spencer P Jones, where previously it may have soared and squalled these latest nuances rhythmically meander with a more pronounced psych-rock swagger. The opening track Regrets rockets off at a blistering pace and is an instant highlight both lyrically and musically. While the pace is peeled back for Didn't Leave A Trace and Cry, Cry, Cry, they allow the listener to explore great lyrics and Madden's passionate vocal style. The sleeper for mine is Broken Alone with its sense of pain and longing. Psychedelic ramblings abound in Anchor and Wasting Time while personal faves I Could Wait and I Want bring back the rock cred to this sensational second effort from Gruntbucket.

If you like your music imbued with a little of The 13th Floor Elevators, Spiritualized and The Black Crowes then wrap your ears around this lot, you won't be sorry.