Bristol four-piece Grandmas House most definitely do not "Screw It Up" here. The new EP from the group, Anything for You just dropped, and it's alternately blistering and nuanced. There's something about this lot which suggests feelings tightly coiled, even as the tunes sometimes reach an emotive peak.
"Screw It Up" is all Bleach-y snarl, while "Slaughterhouse" is deceptively sweet even as it strikes an oddly discordant hook. There's a neat twist of a riff anchoring "From the Gods" which suggests New Wave of New Wave groups like Maximo Park, even as the vocals match those of Idles and the like. Elsewhere, "Nothing Special" is maximum riffage that hits the throttle hard, while closer "Haunt Me" is nearly goth in vibe, though the smartly done rhythmic force of the track keeps things moving forward with grim determination.
There's a lot of heart in these Grandmas House songs. I don't mean that in a cheesy way. This isn't emo or anything, but it's got a real emotional heft to it, even as the punk influences loom large. Anything for You makes me want to run out and find everything else Grandmas House has done. It's that kind of thing.
Anything for You by Grandmas House is out now on various platforms, including Bandcamp.
[Photo: Marie Dutton]