Grouplove - Colours EP Review

'Carpe Diem', 'Follow your heart', 'Your dreams can come true', 'If you think you can you will, if you think you can't you won't'. Whatever mantra, seemingly idealistic vision or self development ideology the five members of Grouplove have chosen to adopt seems to be working beautifully thus far. After chance meetings and brief encounters involving art, The Med, photography and eventually music a quintet of kindred spirits was born.

Now focused in L.A, mainly due drummer Ryan's previous production work and the usefulness of his having a studio, Grouplove were a disparate five souls who set out as two from NYC. Hannah met Christian who in turn met Sean and all three then met friends Andrew and Ryan. They all bonded as soulmates and decided that the duller considerations of life such as security, familiarity, risk and practicality should all be silenced in favour of instinct, adventure, creativity and friendship.

The Colours (Yes they even spelled it right) EP is the group's debut prior to the release of their first full length feature. You can hear the enthusiasm within each of the tracks, their enjoyment is almost palpable. 'We seriously had the best time of our lives doing that record. We all understood how rare it is for five strangers to feel as close as family and create passionate music together.' The 6 track EP is a great taster for what promises to be a very exciting album.

The title track is full of a youthful exuberance paired against a tale of near psychosis. 'So I pull this switch, this switch inside my head, and I see black, black, green and brown, brown, brown, brown and blue, yellow, violets, red, and suddenly a light appears inside my brain and I think of my ways, I think of my days and I know that I have changed.' The drama unfolds through a riot of manically undulating percussion, frantic guitar licks and at times tortured vocals. It's Arcade Fire meets The Decemberists without any of the pretensions of either.

The remaining five tracks give us a fabulous glimpse of what's to come taking in a near Neil Diamond vocal on 'Getaway' through to the West Coast summer scented, candy floss of 'Naked Kids'.............'And we are rollin' up to sand, take your shoes off man, we are skinny dippin' underneath the sea. It's a chicken fight clam, throw your dukes up wham, we are splashin' in the water to the beat.' 'Gold Coast' sticks closer to their collective t-shirt message of 'Never trust a happy song' (You can certainly trust this one) whilst 'Don't Say Oh Well' sees the band truly as one in a gloriously open display of Grouplove....'I told my band mates they are my soul mates, and I hope we can understand that this here year has been a big one, we're followin' what we don't plan.'

The Colours EP by Grouplove.......all you need to know is that you should go out (Or stay in) and buy it.


Andrew Lockwood.