Album Review: Grinspoon - Black Rabbits

Grinspoon, the Oz rock band that cannot be killed, are back with album number seven. Continuing the run of their post-New Detention fare, Black Rabbits functions as a rebuttal of the four-piece's preceding record. This time around, the band take stock of 2009's raw-and-rough Six To Midnight, and offer up its counterpoint; a sleek, catchy power-pop record. From the opening notes of Passerby to the closing strains of Battleground, Black Rabbits sounds more like Unwritten Law or Fountains Of Wayne than Grinspoon's spiritual forefathers Helmet.

For members of the generation of Australian youths who would tear their throats up mimicking Phil Jamieson's grungey scream across the band's Guide To Better Living and Easy records, it going to feel like there's something missing from the polished sheen of Black Rabbits. But in the absence of the constraints of the stereotypically 'Grinspoon' song, Phil and the boys show off their ability to fit a wicked melody around some dextrous playing and the fix it all together with a bouncy, dynamic production. This formula creates some moments of radio rock brilliance – Final Reward contains the band's most memorable chorus since Chemical Heart, bratty quick number Tightrope is a treat and the left-field inclusion of dusty slow-burner Another Sun is too audacious not to enjoy.

Whether the requisitely drunk fans that seem to be at every Grinspoon show screaming about their 'dead cat' will take to songs like Beaujolais is yet to be seen – in this reviewer's opinion, they won't – but good on the Grinners for writing the kind of music that's going to keep them interested in staying out on the road, playing shows for said insufferable fans.