It’s tempting to frame the career of Aussie quartet Blank Realm as a steady progression from noisy obscurity to clearer songcraft. It’s also not too difficult: connect the dots between the dark sounds of early CD-R’s, the dense psych of 2010’s Headless Ark, and the damaged rock of 2012’s Go Easy, and you’ll trace an arc sloping toward accessibility. And their latest, Grassed Inn, is their most structured, tune-heavy album—as well as their best.
But things are never that easy with Blank Realm. Sharp tunes have popped up throughout their discography, often sandwiched between denser noises. Take their catchiest song to date, “Falling Down the Stairs.” It’s the second track on Grassed Inn, but it’s actually been in the band’s repertoire for a while, with live evidence dating back as far as two years ago. More importantly, Grassed Inn is far from smooth or streamlined. The band remains unafraid to spill outside lines, hit off awkward phrases and off notes, and continually stretch themselves. They’ll still take energy and impulse over caution or precision, and that gives even their shapliest songs an edge of unpredictability. It also means that, like every Blank Realm album before it, Grassed Inn makes more sense—and sounds better and better—the more you listen.
A lot of that grow-on-you logic comes from the vocals of siblings Daniel and Sarah Spencer. Their high-pitched snarls still evoke the two-headed Stones-licking of Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema during Royal Trux’s prime. The combination gives chugging opener “Back to the Flood” dizzying momentum, and pushes the loping “Bulldozer Love” into a rave-up rush. What’s different this time is Daniel’s more prominent role. His breathy whine leads most tracks, echoed by the silkier purr of Sarah. His knack at tugging at lines, elongating vowels, and yelping words reminds me most of Richard Hell and Lou Reed. Both saw unconventional voices not as weaknesses but weapons, making every syllable expressive instead of falling back on natural talent. Daniel’s similar skills create tension when paired with structured songs, often bending them to match his curvy, spiked path.
As a result, as you get deeper into Grassed Inn and more in tune with Daniel’s probing style, less-overtly catchy tracks become as earworm-ready as “Falling Down the Stairs.” The drum-machine pulse of “Violet Delivery” builds into waves every time Daniel and Sarah overstress the song’s title, while “Baby Closes the Door” coalesces into Flying Nun-style garage-pop, albeit filtered through Sonic Youth-like guitar dissonance. Blank Realm’s endearing slacker side persists too: “Even the Score” sounds like a sleepy Yo La Tengo amble, or a stoner take on the Velvet Underground’s “Waiting for the Man,” giving its title a hint of double entendre.
After all that sideways approach to melodic tuneage, it makes weird sense that Blank Realm would end Grassed Inn with a song perhaps catchier, and definitely slicker, than “Falling Down the Stairs.” The lilting “Reach You on the Phone” could almost fit in an 80’s movie soundtrack, its soaring synth seemingly nicked from groups like the Church and Psychedelic Furs. Were the band to make an album of just songs like this, it would be hard to resist their odd shine. But Blank Realm is still bent on mixing the diamonds with the rough, and on Grassed Inn that particular swirl is at its most intoxicating.
