Grouplove – Spreading Rumours is the second studio album from the Los Angeles-based indie rock band, released through Canvasback Music and Atlantic Records and produced entirely by the band’s own Ryan Rabin. It follows their 2011 debut, Never Trust A Happy Song, which broke Grouplove into the indie mainstream on the strength of tracks like “Colours,” a song that demonstrated exactly how well this band could splice art-school restlessness with a genuine pop instinct. That debut set a high bar. Spreading Rumours was the answer to it.
About Grouplove – Spreading Rumours
Grouplove formed in 2009 and moved quickly. Their self-titled EP arrived in 2010, “Colours” got everywhere, and Atlantic signed them before most bands in that space had figured out their second song. What made them stand out in the early 2010s alternative rock wave was a refusal to be too precious about the music. There was noise and energy in there, but also real hooks, the kind that stick without feeling calculated. Rabin handling production duties on Spreading Rumours kept that process internal, which matters. When a band produces itself, the record sounds like a decision rather than a compromise. Lead single “Ways To Go” was the opening statement for this album, and it carried the same kinetic push-pull between melody and guitar noise that built their audience in the first place.
Pressing and Format Details
This is the standard LP pressing on Atlantic Records, catalog number 535919. It is a 12-inch vinyl release of the full album, distributed under the Canvasback Music imprint within the Atlantic family. Canvasback was a boutique label within Atlantic that tended to give its acts more room to operate, and Grouplove fit that model well. The pressing represents the album as it was intended for physical release at the time of the September 17th street date, making it the original retail configuration rather than a later reissue.
Why This Record Belongs in Your Collection
If you followed indie rock in the early 2010s, Grouplove were one of the acts that actually delivered on their early promise rather than fading after a single EP. Spreading Rumours is the record where they had something to prove and went about proving it with a band-produced, cohesive LP rather than a collection of singles. Original pressings of mid-period alternative albums on major indie imprints like Canvasback tend to get overlooked at the time and sought after later. Atlantic catalog number 535919 on wax is a clean, no-nonsense way to own this album in its proper format. For collectors focused on that early 2010s indie rock moment, this one fills a real gap on the shelf.
More Alternative vinyl:
