When I reviewed Glasvegas’ previous single ‘I’d Rather Be
Dead (Than Be With You)’ I was confused by the band’s decision to promote their
upcoming third album with such a mournful ballad. It was a decent track, with
heartfelt lyrics and some of the band’s signature qualities (spoken word
interludes, snippets of nursery rhymes) but it didn’t exactly cry out with
commercial appeal.
‘If’ seems to follow the band’s more anthemic nature, which
has been present on their most successful tracks (‘Geraldine’, ‘Euphoria, Take
My Hand’) with the shimmering guitars, which always lend a feeling of majesty
and splendour, ringing out for the duration, while the drums set a
galloping-beat and James Allan’s vocals cry out above it all.
Lyrically the track deals with the notion of there being no
good without bad, and that one notion needs the other in order to exist: “If
not for evil/The kind man would walk on by invisible”. It is a nicely executed philosophy;
although Allan’s incredibly broad Glaswegian accent (in addition to his wailing
vocals) may require the listener to revisit the track several times before all
the comparisons can be gleaned.
The chorus is a typical Glasvegas-style grand declaration: “If
our love was ever to part ways/The the world as we know it would never ever
spin again”. It certainly feels very similar to ‘The World Is Yours’ from the
previous album, even using some of the same lyrics and a similar structure: “If
my lips kissed yours/If I’m your world, then the world is yours”.
The track has a slightly rougher, less glossy edge to it
than ‘The World Is Yours’ but isn’t a million miles away from it, which makes a
lot of the critics’ declarations of a return to form slightly perplexing. The tracks
released so far give the indication that the upcoming album is going to be more
of the same, which is fine, but I still can’t imagine it will replicate – or even
outdo – the success of their debut album (which went Platinum, and made many Album Of The Year
lists back in 2008) or bring the band a wider audience than their current one.
"Later...When The TV Turns To Static" is due out in September, so I will have to see how the album performs upon its release.
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