Ground Components - 'Ground Components' (Love & Mercy)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
So long as rock and roll is still standing, there will be people around all too ready to milk it for every great tune, every simple but emotive lyric, and every cool haircut they can eek out. Ground Components could only plead guilty to that charge. This is an album so far from any boundaries that the idea of pushing them would be absolutely ludicrous. It's the times of rock and roll this lot are living in. Loving it they seem to be also.
If you're only going to indulge in things that promise the future - just give up now, don't investigate this. There's plenty of pretentious rubbish around for the likes of you. If you're here for a good time (with some obligatory sadness thrown in so we recognise the heady states when they come, of course), then feel free to enjoy yourself. With this as a soundtrack, it isn't hard.
The opener to this six-track debut effort - 'Crying Time' - like pretty much everything else here, makes great use of the only thing that Ground Components can really claim to call their own - a unique gusto. Whilst this basic-but-fun rock music malarkey has found a comfortable home in their continent of Australasia of late, there's little temptation to simply compare them to the likes of your Vines, your Datsuns, or your D4 - whilst energy is something they would most certainly suck without, the variety present here is of a different ilk. It seems more urgent, less polished, as if words are shouted so that people positively have to listen because their ears will be made to hurt by the high-pitched yelp if it catches them off-guard.
Whilst it works at their most raucous (that opening track and the following 'Sticks & Stones' providing some throwaway thrills), the hollering arguably doesn't fit quite so well with the more bleak minutes, 'Staying Afloat' only really managing to do just that by having a thoroughly pleasant, again shamelessly simple, backbone. 'Soul Rebel' is a much more successful attempt at sounding genuine, but - yet again - mainly because the tune this time is even better. There's something about the shouting towards the end of it mind, which is bloody ace ('If you're not happy/You must be bluuuuue, YEAH!').
You can imagine it being completely ignored. It's too raucous to be taken to a collective heart, too in love with tradition and a good tune to be adored by the underground. Those looking for a rock record with a lack of pretence and some undemanding but rewarding tunes to throw your way, however, would be fools not to pay attention. What you see is what you get. And what we're seeing is an invitation to have a damn good time.
Artists in this article: Ground Components
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