Glasvegas - Glasvegas

Hell-o! This is one hell of a great record. Glasvegas are from Scotland, which seems more and more to be a seal of quality when it comes to the rock music.  Teenage Fanclub, Jesus and Mary Chain and Aereogramme are only a few of the great bands that have all come from that rainy neck of the Isles in recent years. Lest you think our Scottish friends have fallen off, be aware that new bands like The Twilight Sad and, now, the quartet known as Glasvegas are carrying the torch quite admirably, thank you very much. I had passing knowledge of the lady and gents via something in Q and liked them when they played one of the late night programs. I made a note to check them out and grabbed Glasvegas when I had the chance, but hadn't gotten around to throwing it on until recently. Boy, am I kicking myself. The record has been blowing up in the British Isles since it dropped in September of last year and seems poised to do the same stateside.

Glasvegas the band and Glasvegas the album display a pronounced love of reverb and big soaring choruses. I'll be the first to question what the deal is with all these reverb bands like Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket. I'm not sure whether it's coincident with the grade of weed going through the roof in recent years, or if the prescription drugs that all the kids like these days just cater to this kind of stuff, but it's a little over the top in this day and age. It's becoming the Antares sound of the Rock Underground and it's in danger of getting way played out. That said, Glasvegas have reverb on every damn thing they can get a noise out of here and it's absolutely wonderful.  Think Jesus and Mary Chain covering Motown tunes with Mike Peters on lead vocals.  Trust me, it's a pretty magical combination.

There is the weird spoken word piece over an interpolation of The Moonlight Sonata, but I'll ignore that and aver that the nine other tracks on Glasvegas are some of the best that I've heard this year. If Columbia can't sell this record in the States, the US record industry is well and truly in the shitter, as Glasvegas are everything good about U2 and The Killers with half the pretension.  You need to buy this record. There, I said it.  Here's a link. You can keep tabs on them through their awesomely Scottish website. Check it out here and thank me later.

Slainte!

R