(Remedy Music)

Brisbane guitar popsters look to the stars

For their third album Constellations, Grand Atlantic departed Brisbane for Flying Nun country, aka Dunedin, New Zealand. However, listeners shouldn’t expect to confuse this album with the crisp, classic indie pop of your Bats, Chills etc. Rather, the record takes their guitar pop craftsmanship and gives it a moodier, darker edge. Suitably enough given its name, the lengthy title track brings in space-rock elements, while lead single Poison To The Vine swings with a Stems-like garage abandon. With its hulking Oasis-esque drumbeat, Little Traps has hints of shoegaze and classic Britpop, and lovers of that classic pop melody / swirling guitar combination should not go past opening track Searchlights. The record as a whole showcases a subtle evolution in mainman Phil Usher’s songwriting though he delivers these headier tunes with his usual gravelly assurance. While some tracks convince more than others (I’d take the shake-your-moneymaker riff rock of Central Station Blues over the twangin’ balladry of Voyager, for instance), there’s not a genuinely duff moment on the record. These songs would simply cook live.

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MATT THROWER

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