"Back Round" is a song by Australian

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

Wolfmother Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the line-up. The band has been through many personnel changes since ...

. Written by vocalist and guitarist

Andrew Stockdale Andrew James Kenneth Stockdale (born 20 July 1976) is an Australian singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and only continuous member of the rock music, rock band Wolfmother. E ...

, the song was the first material released since original band members Chris Ross and

Myles Heskett Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the line-up. The band has been through many personnel changes since ...

left the band in August 2008. "Back Round" was originally released as a free digital download on the band's official website on 30 March 2009, and was later released as a downloadable

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

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on 26 May 2009. In October 2009 the song was featured on the deluxe edition of the band's second album, ''

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''.

History

"Back Round", originally entitled "Back Home", was written in September 2007, during a period of doubt surrounding the original incarnation of Wolfmother. Stockdale began recording some parts of the song and subsequently played it later in the year with drummer Dave Atkins, who joined the band as a full-time member in 2009. The song received its live debut, along with "The Violence of the Sun", "Monolith" and "Inside the Mountain", on 12 April 2008 when the band played their first gig in nine months at the

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. GOMA, which opened on 2 December 2006, is the largest ...

. The song was then recorded in

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in August 2008, after the original band split up, but was subsequently re-recorded in a studio built under Stockdale's house in Australia between November and December, including some guitar parts on 12 December. Played at the two low-key comeback performances in Australia on 6 and 8 February, the song made its 'official' international live debut at the

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on 27 March 2009, and was released for free on the band's official website shortly after. The song was also performed on 1 May at the

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, the new lineup's first performance outside of Australia, where new songs "Cosmic Egg" and "California Queen" were premièred. "Back Round" was featured on the

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

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'' as a playable track in September 2009, and was made available for free download from the game's official website. Outside of Australia, "Back Round" was also released as a downloadable single in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Style and reception

With regards to the style of the song, music magazine ''

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'' described "Back Round" as "swimming in chunky guitar licks and drum fills". Rinjo Njori of music blog Earvolution.com likened the song to the band's older material, claiming it holds up well next to "

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", and compared it to the work of

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Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

and

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. Independent website Altsounds.com introduced the song as a "rollicking behemoth of timeless rock n roll", going on to praise it as "A liberating avalanche of skull-crushing drums and primal riffing ..a joyous evolution for the Australian band"; while American newspaper '' The Herald'' was equally optimistic, suggesting that "The new lineup sounds ready to deliver the goods based on 'Back Round'". Though already released for free, the track was a minor commercial success, charting at number 100 on the Australian

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Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Back Round" was recorded on 24 July 2009. Stockdale uploaded two

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s from the videoshoot on his Twitter profile, claiming that the "Clip

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be out soon". As of the release of ''Cosmic Egg'', however, a music video has still not been released; the release of videos for subsequent singles " New Moon Rising", "

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" and " Far Away" suggests that the idea has since been set aside.

Personnel

Musical personnel *

– vocals, guitar, bass guitar * Dave Atkins – drums *Ben Tolliday – additional bass,

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

assistance Production personnel *

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...

– mixing *Justin Tresidder – engineering *Joe Malone – technical assistance

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2009 singles Wolfmother songs Songs written by Andrew Stockdale Song recordings produced by Alan Moulder 2009 songs Modular Recordings singles