Glasvegas Glasvegas Posted January 9th, 2009 by BVaz

Scotland! Scottish-rockers Glasvegas’ very much ballyhooed debut album, released last year in the UK garnering some year-end list nods (even garnering #48 in the hype machine zeitgeist), has finally landed on our fair shores of America for our listening pleasure, being released this past tuesday. I didn’t really have much in terms of set expectations of the album, maybe having heard a track or so, but being a fan of Scottish rock and Scotch then it seems like they should be right up my alley. The album is pretty good, though at times somewhat unremarkable, but they certainly have some moments of greatness in here for you.

The sound here is kind of a middle point between high distortion shoegaze and epic modern arena-rock kind of sound. Lumbering huge-sounding drums are offset against reverbed high-gain 3 note guitar solos, giving an almost spacy quality to the songs. But they certainly do not hold anything back in the grandeur of their style on the record and they are on the other side of the field from lo-fi or minimalism. And of course they are very Scottish and the lead singer has a nice thick accent that lends a good bit of uniqueness and coolness to the sound.

“Flowers and Football Tops” kicks it off in style, with a very long epic jam that times out over 6:30, and it certainly sets the stage for the rest of the album. They certainly operate in the epic hazy distortion arena and that continues throughout the album (reminds me a little of Stellastarr also, though not nearly as high-energy/tempo). On this one they start out spacy, get very epic rock in the middle, then somehow mix in “You Are My Sunshine” into a noisy outro, quite a feat. The next track “Geraldine” was a big song in the UK and it is a cool jam, continuing the simple melodic pseudo-hooks coupled with huge drums and lots of reverb. They set a cool atmosphere for sure. “Daddy’s Gone” and “Polmont on my Mind” are both cool songs as well, with a great sound and a nice beat. Then along comes “Stabbed” which completely throws this whole thing for a loop, with him talking about someone stabbing him with backing music of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. “S.A.D. Light” brings the album back to its true form and is another really good song, as is the slow closer “Ice Cream Van”, which almost strays into M83 territory with the epic synth-noise progression halfway through the song.

I really like this album and I can understand why it has gotten so much critical praise, as it sounds very good on almost all fronts and there is not really a misstep here. But I think the only real drawback of the album is that they have really perfectly put together a collection of songs that kind of almost have the same sound to them, as in there is a bit of a lack of variety here. Often the songs will change from one to the next and you won’t even realize it because it is so seamless and the next song shares a lot of the same sound as the previous one. In this sense a lot of the songs on the album kind of get lost and don’t necessarily distinguish themselves from the others.

Aside from that however, these guys have created a great album and it is incredibly solid to pick up. Every song is good, but don’t go into it expecting for them to deviate too far off of their beaten path throughout the record. Despite their trodding the same soil in a lot of ways from song to song this is still a good pickup here early in ’09.

BV Rate: 80

Glasvegas – Flowers and Football Tops – From Glasvegas
Glasvegas – Geraldine – From Glasvegas

Additionally they have some limited US tour date appearances upcoming that I would recommend you try and check out if possible:

Tour Dates:
1/6/09 Bowery Ballroom New York, NY (SOLD OUT)
1/8/09 Popscene San Francisco, CA (SOLD OUT)
1/10/09 Chop Suey Seattle, WA
1/11/09 Richards on Richards Vancouver, ON
1/12/09 Doug Fir Lounge Portland, OR
1/14/09 Troubador Los Angeles, CA (SOLD OUT)
1/15/09 Ameoba In-Store Los Angeles, CA

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