ALBUM REVIEW: Tear It Out: 98-04 – The Grips

With a catalogue of songs recorded over two decades ago, we now have the full selection to browse through from Nottingham punk outfit THE GRIPS. The record itself, Tear It Out: 98-04, spans over 20 tracks that, while generally following the standard set-up of short but sweet punk songs, also experiment with sounds ranging from smooth jazz to funk to shoegaze – a blend that will leave you hanging in anticipation for what’s to come next.

This could be the first time you’ve come across THE GRIPS, and with a rather limited online presence, there’s potential for this to be a repeat of the PANCHIKO saga, another Nottingham band who were active during the same time. In 2016, over a decade since disbanding, an anonymous 4chan user found an EP of theirs in a charity shop, posted it online and sparked an online campaign to find out just who this band was. Four years later members were found, sparking a reunion and re-recording of their songs to a totally brand new audience of fans.

If there’s potential for a band to reform and re-introduce their songs to new ears, then we certainly hope that this happens with THE GRIPS. Tear It Out comprises 20 songs, all of which offer their own unique personality. They’re fun and chaotic and would fit perfectly into the modern punk scene. The low-quality production will bring you back to the early days of punk; tracks like Destroy Everything, Babylon, and Addiction immediately draw comparison to the genre’s legendary eras where you can hear influence not only from the greats of the 70s like THE CLASH, the SEX PISTOLS and the RAMONES, but also from 90s heroes like GREEN DAY and countless others. The chaotic nature of each recording paints a beautiful picture of live performances full of carnage, jumping, shouting and sweaty bodies pushing themselves against the stage.

Yet in that same breath the band offer a unique blend with the more relaxing side of music genres. There’s beach music as heard in Neon, which also brings scenes from 60s spy films to mind; jazz in She Walks Right Through Me; and even funk in Gospel Box, a track that even draws comparison to Love Shack. It all sounds like it shouldn’t work, yet it does. One could argue that THE GRIPS were ahead of the times with the way they blended styles and genres that wouldn’t typically be associated together. Tear It Out has low-quality production but is a high-quality document of a band gone too soon. If this would spark a reunion then we can’t wait to hear modern, yet still chaotic, versions of these songs.

Rating: 9/10

Tear It Out: 98-04 is out now via Music Saves.