When Grouplove broke into the scene in 2009 with their first album, Never Trust a Happy Song, they boasted a unique sound and there wasn’t another band like them.

The band was founded by five artists, four of them were musicians and one of them was an artist, making a living off paintings and drawings. When the band first started, Hannah Hooper, the female singer and painter, had never sung before.

But with her boyfriend, Christian Zucconi, singing lead right beside her on stage and the rest of her band backing her up, she powered through and proved she had one of the most unique female voices in the indie scene.

In 2013, Grouplove released their second album, Spreading Rumors. This album remarkably helped them gain popularity with their hit single Ways to Go.

However, after this solid, imaginative album was toured, founding member and bass player, Sean Gadd, felt like it was time to put it all behind him and move on to new things.

This is where I believe the fall of the Grouplove I knew and loved began.

This month, Grouplove released their third full-length album Big Mess. After much anticipation after their first two albums, I was incredibly excited to hear the new songs by this energetic band.

Unfortunately, it did not even come close to my expectations.

When I listened to the tracks, I found the album to be boring, consisting of mostly background songs. One song stood out with a catchy chorus, one was a classic Grouplove song and another one sounded eerily close to a Nirvana song.

The first song off of the album is, Welcome to Your Life. This song was released as a single on July 14th this year. Positive reviews came flying in almost immediately following the release and making the hype for, Big Mess, even bigger.

Welcome to Your Life’s chorus has uplifting words and a catchy melody that a traditional Grouplove song should have. The chorus got stuck in my head after hearing it just once.

But the issue is that’s all the song has — a catchy chorus. The versus, which should vary in words or at least have a different phrase at some point seemed to be stuck on the same line, like a record that skips.

My favorite song off Big Mess came directly after, Welcome to Your Life. The song is called Do You Love Someone. This is by far their best feat on this album. The first beat lifts you up and makes you feel happy and calm. Plus, the words aren’t corny like some of the other songs. If I had to pick a hidden gem on this album, Do You Love Someone is it.

When I first listened to Big Mess, my favorite song was “Traumatized” It had this 90’s punk feeling. After some listening I realized it sounded an awful lot like the Nirvana song, Aneurysm, which the band released in 1992 on their album Incestacide. When listening to them side by side you can hear the similarities. The only differences are in the beginning of the riff where Grouplove deviates away by playing one different note.

Overall, I hope that after I listen and hear Big Mess a few more times, I will get into the tracks more. While this album may seem like a big mess at first, I have not yet given up hope for one of my favorite indie bands.