I like Grown At Home. Nice guys, good live show and certainly not work-shy, even though their sound is not something I would usually go out of my way to listen to, I’ve always found them fun and interesting. ‘Assemble’ contains their best songs to date. Some of the tracks here are as good as anything Lightyear have done – high praise, but listen to the first half of this record and you may agree with me. sadly ‘Assemble’ is a record of two halves – the first is scintillating, the second drops off and ultimately ends in a disappointing way.
There’s a Lightyear-esque feel on many of the tracks here, which is no bad thing and if you’re a fan of that kind of madcap ska-esque sound I’m sure you’ll quickly warm to GAH. The lyrics are often very clever and well thought out, the pace quick and emphatic and the delivery works on 90% of the tracks. ‘My pet Bomb’ and ‘Get Ready’ stick out, while ‘Discuss This Item’ (a dig at PT’s forums lads?!) is a moment of genius – a clever track poking fun at the internet and the gossiping nature of online forums.
From here, though, I don’t think there’s the overall punch and power of some of the earlier tracks. ‘How We Roll’ is an excellent track which reminds me of Sublime, while ‘Rise of the Idiots’ is the soundtrack to your summer. But there’s not the consistency of the opening half ozen songs and I’m left thinking 13 songs is maybe thre or four too many. Perhaps that’s a little harsh and it’d be wrong to end this review on a negative note because, as I mentioned at the outset, GAH have written their best songs yet and they feature on this record, so I’d heartily recommend picking ‘Assemble’ up just for those songs. This is a fun summer record and well worth checking out.
www.myspace.com/grownathome
cash for pigs records
paul