Album Review: Grenadiers - 'Summer'

Adelaide punk rockers Grenadiers are back with their second album 'Summer' just in time for the season of the same name! Well planned boys.

This isn't the laze by the pool and relax with a mocktail while reading a book kind of summer though, this is a skate down to your mates rental property, WITHOUT a helmet, throw a BBQ that ends up burning down half the backyard, get drunk on straight bourbon and make some regrets kind of summer.

If the opening (and title track) of the record tell us anything about the band themselves, it's that these guys can't be trusted with picking up your expensive china figurines for a closer view. Sure, they will ask politely if they can look at said items, but they will more than likely break the top hat off of the little gentlemen and the front two legs off of his horse. You can tell this by the track’s bass line alone, which is juicier than a Salisbury Steak with a side serve of catchy-as-hell melodies.

If the album stand-out Factotum isn't your new daily anthem and all-round life mantra after the first twenty-four seconds of play, then please head down to JB Hi-Fi during one of their 20% off sales, buy the entire series of Downton Abbey and never bother any of us with your foodpic/selfie opinions ever again. This song is the raddest thing since that scene in Point Break when Keanu Reeves is all like, "he's not coming back" and all the Aussie cops freak out.

The album never really lets up, it nags at you until you enjoy yourself, the fast paced openings of Handfuls of Dirt spread out into roomy, thudding verse lines that contain both a sense of urgency and seriousness, all to be brought back into some head-banging glory and group chants to remind us to be at maximum chill, all the time. The album chooses to reference moments of whiskey soaked rock n' roll frequently, especially in the guitar lines of Stay Inside, which without warning turn into some kind of QOTSA homage that is a modern day freak-out designed to give your love juice more potency.

Fanny Pack follows the vibe of Factotum, clearly a song about the pure convenience and brilliant functionality of a fanny pack, it is the musical equivalent of those tiny little cans of super juiced energy shit you can buy from independent convenience stores that probably shouldn't be legal.

If we quickly skip over the subtle but effective melodies in Wishbone to try and keep within a convenient word count, we find that Summer inevitably must end at some point. Grenadiers try their best to do this on a positive note however, with the chirpiest moment of the entire record, the closing track, that ensures that you have had a pleasant stay and will hopefully come back the next time you visit town, and you know that bathrobe you stole, don't worry about it, this one is on us.

Sometimes we all forget about rock n' roll a little bit, but just like life in Jurassic Park, it finds a way. Grenadiers' new album 'Summer' is that amber preserved mosquito that you need in your life right now.

1. Summer

2. Factotum

3. Take Forever

4. Handfuls of Dirt

5. Nothing On

6. Stay Inside

7. Fannypack

8. Wishbone

9. Fingers, Toes

10. Summer's End