Constellations (Grand Atlantic)

FOR an album recorded in an abandoned lunatic asylum in a far-flung corner of New Zealand, Constellations is remarkably devoid of, well, nuttiness.

Grand Atlantic

FOR an album recorded in an abandoned lunatic asylum in a far-flung corner of New Zealand, Constellations is remarkably devoid of, well, nuttiness.

In fact, the third long-player from Brisbane four-piece Grand Atlantic is more measured soul journey than psychedelic trip down lobotomy lane.

And Constellations is all the better for it. Laid down earlier this year at the disused Seacliff Lunatic Asylum in Dunedin, Constellations continues the bold, melodic rock sound that characterised the band's 2007 debut This is Grand Atlantic and 2009's How We Survive.

Lead singer Phil Usher's grainy vocal bursts through a dense jungle of reverb to open the LP on the anthemic Searchlights, before the band ups the tempo on agreeable rock ramble Central Station Blues.

Grand Atlantic channels Oasis on the following title track, distorted guitar, falsetto third harmonies and bolshie riffs transporting the listener back to the anti-grunge movement of the mid-90s, before rising to a crescendo of A Day in the Life excess. It's a remarkable track.

The stark Mountains Too Steep and Voyager, a haunting exercise in melodic melancholy, are held aloft by a kind of pseudo-symphonic white noise; a beautiful, if unidentifiable, wall of sound that seems to fill every available space.

Grand Atlantic rocks out on the funky Fresh Ideas in Home Security and the seriously syncopated No Man's Land before drawing on the ghosts of Seacliff and heading into the darker recesses of the mind for the bleak but beautiful acoustic closer Queenie.

LABEL: Independent
RATING: 4 stars