Grouplove, “This is This.”

It’s hard to come up with a more matter-of-fact way of responding to how the pandemic threw off everyone’s plans last year than the surprise  Grouplove release of This is This. The newest record from the band was announced Wednesday alongside the lead single—coming within one day of the one-year anniversary of the band’s last album, Healer. It’s response to how the band dealt with the chaos of 2020. For those who choose to remember, the last album was released during the first week of lockdowns. That effectively ended the Healer‘s promotion and tour.

Creating This is This is where the band turned instead. Nine energetic and loud rock songs make up the album, as the band catalogs its boredom and frustrations through vivid lyrics and guitar-heavy choruses. The alt-rock sound is explored further than on their previous releases, adding a concise and refined album to the Grouplove collection. 

The opening tracks take listeners through an apocalyptic journey of last spring, when shelves were cleared of everyday supplies like toilet paper and people stocked up on perishable goods. On “Primetime,” couple Christian Zucconi and Hannah Hooper plead, “Give me back my own time/ Hold him here in place of me.” On “This Is the End” through the chaotic energy of the song, we’re reminded that when the end does come, the best we can hope for is to be together.

“Deadline,” the lead single, has the most distinct pop sound, in contrast with the rest of the album. Opening with a quiet, synthesized, twinkling beat, it swells into an upbeat, driving pop song. The group plays with its singing styles, changing from nasally verses to the last lines of the chorus with a beat change, where it switches to a more aggressive delivery. Zucconi reminisces on missing his family, wishing the simplicity of childhood bedtimes were still the biggest concerns in life. The boredom of quarantine was close to unbearable, with the chorus’ final lyric perfectly summarizing the attitude so many of us took on: “I’m gonna smash my face in the cake and celebrate.”

A few tracks later brings “Oxygen Swimming,” the band’s most noteworthy and poetic piece on the album. The song paints a uniquely simple image of a couple admiring a tree in a backyard, reminding listeners that nature and life do continue despite surrounding chaos outside. Lovers can continue to grow despite being physically apart, their breaths continuing to swim back to one another, keeping them together. The song is quieter and more acoustic-based than the rest of the album, working well to break up the hard guitar and screaming used through most songs. 

In the last half comes “Shake That Ass.” Despite the key lyric—“Shake that ass on camera/ Shake that ass online”—feeling somewhat simple and cliché, it’s another highlight. The distorted music and anthemic chanting make for an easy singalong than the rest of This is This. Then on the anxiety-inducing “Seagull,” a respite halfway through features a breezy audio clip of seagulls and tames the song just enough to not overwhelm. 

Finally, on “Shout,” Grouplove lets the members’ feelings erupt one last time, quite literally yelling to really “let it all out.” Nearly six minutes long, its final two and a half minutes feature an epic guitar solo—ending with distorted speaking, laughter and then nothing but a scratching, vibrating noise. Like taking a breather to ruminate over 2020, the memories lost or unable to be made, Grouplove concludes its album on a stagnant note, this time intentional.

Follow Domenic Strazzabosco at Twitter.com/domenicstrazz and Instagram.com/domenicstrazz.