Album Review: Grower by Burnt Tapes

It’s no secret what a big fan of Burnt Tapes I am. I’ve been fortunate to be able to follow their career since they released their first demo/EP Wasted History in 2014 and have seen the incredible progression up until last year’s stunning debut album, Never Better. Never a band to stand still for long, Phil, Pan, Tone and Jordan have been back in the studio, The Ranch, with their frequent collaborator Daly George to record a new EP named Grower. Instead of releasing Grower on CD or vinyl, the band decided to do something a little different. Grower has been released with a beech tree. The reason for this was to be more environmentally conscious. Guitarist Phil explained “We wanted to do something a little different, more sustainable and planet-friendly. Something you can plant and nurture, and watch grow. Don’t get me wrong, we love a good band T-shirt! But we need more green spaces in order to tackle the climate emergency, and hopefully, we can raise more awareness about this through this initiative. And most of all provide you with some wholesome family fun”. I’m sure you already know that I loved this EP as I have loved everything the Tapes have released.

Grower begins with Dynasty, Die With Me. Continuing with the sound that the band made their own on Never Better with warm guitar tones an fantastic gruff sounding vocals, Dynasty, Die With Me could have easily found itself at home on the album. As ever Phil and Pan share vocal duties and to open the EP Phil gets his chance to shine. It’s a powerful and emotional vocal from Phil, who’s vocals get better with each and every release. He’s always had a great gruff style but on recent releases he seems to have learnt how to add more melody to his singing. Up next it’s Getitgotitgood. The track begins with a short introduction that builds towards Pan’s vocals. Pan’s vocals give the song such an infectious energy that have you wanting to sing along immediately. The song’s highlight is without a doubt the chorus, which may be one of my favourites the band has written to date. Pan definitely has a fantastic skill for writing some huge hooks. This is one that I’m really looking forward to seeing live when such things are allowed to happen again.

The third song, Greek Wood, was released earlier this year when the band asked friends to film themselves in the bath for a special video. Check it out here and look out for some familiar faces. I loved the opening guitar riff, it’s the sort that lets you know immediately what the next song is. It had me wondering if it was a little nod to their great friends in Triple Sundae who have a similar alarm like riff for their song Fabricated. This is another song that I can’t wait to see live as I can imagine the crowd going absolutely nuts for it. The song is about a sad break up. Phil pours his heart out singing about thinking about an ex and wondering if there are feeling left between them. The final track on Grower is an acoustic version of Yuzi, the lead single from Never Better. This is the first acoustic version the band have ever released and I loved it. This whole summer was about acoustic live streams so it seemed very fitting to include this. I’m very impressed with how Pan managed to retain the energy from the original on this stripped back version. If you don’t know the original then I strongly advise you to go and check it out.

It’s a Burnt Tapes release so it’s obviously brilliant. Go and buy it from Lockjaw Records and, if you have the space to grow a small beech tree, buy one of those as well.

Stream and download Grower on Bandcamp here.

Like Burnt Tapes of Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.