Album Review: GRMLN - Empire

GRMLN is the vowel-shy alter ego for SoCal-via-Kyoto kid Yoodoo Park, a clear lover of melodic American pop-punk sounds of the '90s. Empire attests to this – ten tracks of pristine, glistening guitar tracks that surf the gamut of pop, from doo-wop to surf-rock and beyond. It's exuberantly produced, and Park is earnest in his energy, yet Empire falls into the trap of sounding like everything it emulates to be, without stamping enough of a personality to make the listener care.

Teenage Rhythm is a great opener, however; a crunching guitar pop gem that explodes out of the blocks and never looks back at the carnage. The track, though, is a little misleading, as the album starts to skip genres incessantly, sometimes halfway through a song. Hand Pistol swings between the Pixies and Weezer (the chorus and bridge are quintessential Cuomo-lite), which wouldn't be a bad thing if Park wasn't sounding so melodramatic (“Pistol in my hand/I don't wanna pull the trigger now pointed at my face/When you said I'm leaving”). The lyrics are earnest to the point of mawkishness for the most part, the subject matter (the ups and downs of burgeoning love) monotone and the buoyancy of the songs start to wear thin. There is even the obligatory solemn acoustic number (Dear Fear).

Apart from Cheer Up, an excellent punk/doo-wop hybrid which hints at another trick up this pony's sleeve, Empire refuses to break ranks from the sunny garage pop milieu that Park has set for himself, with diminishing returns. There is talent here – let's hope that with time to reflect and grow up, album number two hits some higher peaks.