Here’s an album that was released in February, but which I didn’t have time to write about then. But you can’t miss this, because this is one of the best rock album I’ve heard so  far this year, namely Grande Roses’ second album “Built On Schemes”.

Again they show us a dark, dense postpunk based rock, and even if they have polished off some of the post punk in the sound and the most heated anger from the debut album “Disease“, the sharpness and the furious energy is still there. The songs feel overall stronger and with a larger variation, and finally I can replace “Radio Heartbreak”, which has been spinning in my head since the last album, with the new “Ambulance”. Here are some songs:

Grande Roses’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

In the beginning of the year I presented a taste from Grande Roses’ upcoming album “Disease”. The album was later released during Spring, and with such a excellent collection of  soot-black post rock songs, it would be a sin not to mention it in a post. Not least because of the album’s highlight  “Radio Heartbreak”, which is probably the best rock track I’ve heard so far this year, and which has totally got stuck in my head. Here it is, together with the video.

Grande Roses’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

It’s been a lot of tasting of upcoming albums this month, and today is no exception. It’s about Grande Roses who, after ten year of playing together and four EP:s, are going to release their first full length album, “Disease”. It’ll be out on the third of April, and a couple of days ago they released the first single, “Bullets”, which you can listen to here below.

Since I wrote about the band the last time in 2010, they have had time to sign a contract with EMI, and also to see it be canceled, just two weeks before they were going to enter the studio to record the album. They decided, though, to continue on their own.

The band’s singer and lyrics writer, Göran Messelt Andersson, writes:

I was so damn’ tired of it all. Bitter, Tired. Black. Everything has come to be about money. To create – to destroy. I realised that if there’s money to get, something needs to be sacrificed. If someone brings a contract and wants you to sign it, then there’s almost always a reason not to do it. That’s basically what  “Bullets” is about.
(transl. from Swedish)

And there’s not doubt about the dark feelings in this song, where they produce a blackness in the vicinity of Sisters of Mercy, with a sound that makes me think of new wave rock from  the eighties, but with a dirty layer on top which still leaves one leg standing in indie rock soil of today. The album title track “Disease” is also available to listen to on their pages, a song that is just as great as “Bullet”.

Grande Roses’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

Grand Roses was, to say the least, an interesting discovery. This spring they released their third EP “Say It to My Fervent Heart”, and it has become a favourite of mine. To make an attempt to describe their music I’d take a part of Glasvegas and mix it with a dose of attitude from Union Carbide Productions and also a sensation of mellow Americana.

Well, it sounds really good with strong tracks and a singer who strikes the right nerve and has a nice darkness in his voice. Listen some more on their Myspace page and on Spotify.

Their second EP, “The Farm”, is also available on Spotify and on their Myspace page. Here are two songs from “Say It to My Fervent Heart”:

A Place to Love
The Astronaut