Over the past 12 months I must’ve read at least 25 pieces on Glasvegas all without hearing a full song from them. So I’ve been wondering for this last week before their album comes out, should we talk about Glasvegas?
I ask this question because I honestly don’t know the answer. Should we talk about Glasvegas? And I think that leads us to a bigger and more important question, should we care about Glasvegas? The NME seems to think we should, they did after all put this album-less bunch of Scots on a recent cover, letting loose an avalanche of hype for the fourpiece. This fever quickly spread as labels opened their cheque books, UK festivals booked the startled-eyed quartet and new fans sprung up overnight.
But this isn’t a discussion on Hype Machinations, but one of the band at the centre of this buzz storm, Glasvegas. From what I can tell there are three ways of approaching the frenzy around Glasvegas, you could either embrace the band as your latest and greatest musical love, dismiss the talk as overwhelming hyperbole or just shrug your shoulders and say ‘meh’. That’s what I did, after all, do we really need another bunch of sombre fucking Brits who write songs about it being miserable in the UK and never going to the beach? I don’t think so.
But with the sheer volume of media attention around these guys, you always wonder, are they worth it? Let’s find out.
Okay, so it’s actually pretty good. The mix of reverb-squall and old-soul harmonies is a nice touch as is the thickness of James Allan’s accent. There are clear markers of Jesus & Mary Chain and early Primal Scream, as well as an obvious fondness to Seattle grunge. With each listen the ’50s steez seems more and more stiff, much like the Allan brothers’ fucking greaser hair. But the tunes are solid. Yeah solid indeed. Geraldine’s intro is also marching beats and careening guitar fuzz and Daddy’s Gone, while being the sour-faced naval gazing you’d expect, is a persuasive listen.
It kinda sucks that I can’t write them off completely. With all the talk around them it would’ve been easy to do that and be done with it. But the songs are strong and the band interesting enough to make a mark in the musical landscape of today. This of course doesn’t get us any closer to solving the Glasvegas dilemma but September 9th isn’t far off, so everyone out will be deciding for themselves if they should care about Glasvegas.
