Grooms - Prom

(Kanine, 2011)

Grooms' debut, Rejoicer, was my favorite album of 2009.  I have a fondness for and often slip back into the gritty guitars and general dissonance of 90's indie rock and Rejoicer struck so hard on that aesthetic, those hooks and the general feeling of rawness that I was immediately smitten.  It's a difficult thing, becoming so brazenly attached to an album, and then not feel some sense of disappointment when the follow-up isn't quite as awesome.  That's how I felt about this year's Gang Gang Dance album, Eye Contact, the follow-up to another year-end favorite: Saint Dymphna.  However, this is not how I feel about Prom.  Released in the summertime months, I have been digesting this album for a little bit and I have come to the conclusion that Prom demands a gestation period.  Rocking a little less urgently, a bit more casually, with the same sense of 90's-era shabbiness but not quite as loudly as on Rejoicer, Prom is calmed and, for lack of a better word, mature; but mature, as Dismemberment Plan taught me (among so many other things), is not so bad a word, and Prom is an absolute stunner.  I am smitten again and surprised, really, to not be at all disappointed.  Such an amazing album.  Don't sleep on Grooms. Prom is amazing.