THE RANCH OF LOVE & TORTURE

At one point, in some whimsical alternate universe, the new album from LA pop-rockers Grouplove could’ve been a gruff ’n’ grungy love-letter to the ‘90s. The quintet holed themselves up in the small coastal town of Inverness, Northern California, where they poured their collective heart and soul into their fretboards in pursuit of a lo-fi masterpiece worthy of Double J’s feature album circa ’96. As lead guitarist Andrew Wessen rhapsodises, “It was this incredible breakthrough where we all stayed up ’til five in the morning every day, eyes rolled back, making this crazy guitar record.”

And then David Sitek happened. Not to say that Sitek marred what would eventually grow to become – an ultra sprightly smoothie of towering choruses, caramel-sticky hooks and big, belting guitar melodies – or that he himself