A spot of research enabled me to uncover the fact that Grinspoon are big in their native Australia, and formed in 1995. Over the course of their first five albums and a stint signed to Universal, their sound shifted from post-grunge to more mainstream alt-rock. 'Six To Midnight' is album number six and marks their return after a three year break and their first since their departure from Universal.
In the intervening years since 1997s 'Alibis and Other Lies', front man Phil Jamieson did a stint in rehab for addiction to Crystal Meth. Whether or not this is a factor in 'Six To Midnight' being an album that's seemingly confused at to its identity, I wouldn’t like to speculate. Nevertheless, it is very much an album that’s stylistically divided; half 90s grungy rock, half clean-cut corporate rock.
So while 'Champion' comes on like some gritty RATM-influenced US hard rock, 'Comeback' (ostensibly a response to the critics who wrote the band off while Jamieson was cleaning up his act) sounds like Tenacious D playing boy-band hard rock, and 'Give You More' is acoustic cowboy rock that's far closer to a Bon Jovi rip-off than is healthy.
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The harder-edged tracks sound reasonably convincing, if a little dated and derivative of countless bands who came and went circa 1994. But they're infinitely preferable to the poppier efforts with which they alternate, and which are simply bland, radio-friendly workouts, corporate, calculated.
Rather than the sound of a band pushing themselves and attempting new styles and forms, 'Six To Midnight' sees Grinspoon come across like a band struggling with identity and attempting to straddle the boundaries of alternative cool and mainstream crowd-pleasing. Such an approach is almost certainly doomed to failure, and on 'Six to Midnight' that's precisely what Grinspoon achieve.
Grinspoon on MySpace
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