Later...When The TV Turns To Static (Album) - Glasvegas

Two years on from their polarising second album “Euphoric Heartbreak”, Glasvegas are back with their latest offering “Later...When the TV Turns To Static”. Their second album saw the band take some bold steps forward, expanding on their established sound – built around shimmering atmospherics – but lost the interest of a lot of fans along the way. “Euphoric Heartbreak” was certainly an album that required the listener to work a little harder than their self-titled debut (which was a lot more immediately accessible) but once you scratch the surface it was not as alienating as many people – supposedly – found it.

The opening (title) track commences with the same shimmer that ran through their debut album, but the proceeding tune doesn’t have quite the same flair as ‘Flowers and Football Tops’. The verses trudge along, with James Allan’s sleepy vocals maintaining the downbeat tone (fitting for a song set in a psychiatric institution) before opening up with his trademark wailing on the chorus. The lyrics are quite good, but they are left wanting amongst an arrangement that seems a little substandard, which lends an irony to the lyric: “...seems so automatic, systematic”. It’s nothing new, and it certainly doesn’t kick the album off with a bang; there’s not so much a sense of “They’re back!” more rather “oh, you again”. Perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh on this track, and I think that is due to it being the opener – the tone-setter for the rest of the album – which feels too much like the band are sleepily going through the motions, rather than pulling the listener in.

Heavy guitars and drums wash over the following track, ‘Youngblood’ which allows the pace to pick up a little, but it doesn’t feel like a very comfortable track, with the vocals seeming rather at odds with the music, and a chorus that is just plain awkward. ‘Choices’ marks an immediate improvement; a really nice piano arrangement underscores the echoey vocals, and Allan’s voice is a lot more comprehensible. It is a mournful ballad which – especially weighed up against the previous track – proves that less is more. A static wave emerges about halfway through the track, which gradually builds (but never overwhelms) until it washes away the lyrics, leaving a really nice piano outro.

There is a sense of urgency surrounding ‘All I Want Is My Baby’ as James Allan yells the opening line, which then leads into a stream-of-consciousness style rant, occasionally interrupted by a chorus (which is comprised of the title lyric repeated several times). Eventually the instrumentation catches up with the ravings by the end of the track, giving the vocals a bit more power, but it’s too little too late on another (unfortunately) lacklustre song. ‘Secret Truth’ doesn’t offer much more, screeching electric guitars occasionally tear through the arrangement to break up the monotony, but then there is an overly-long fadeout which eclipses about half the track.

Lead single ‘I’d Rather Be Dead (Than Be With You)’ puts the album back on track, and it is a solid song due to its simplicity. Place the track alongside ‘Choices’ and you have a very nice pair of mournful piano-led ballads, which showcase the song-writing abilities and singing voice of the band’s front-man. Another clunker then emerges in the shape of ‘Magazine’ which has a similar sound to ‘Youngblood’ but pulls back the heavy guitars in exchange for a decidedly 80s sound.

Respite is then offered on the second single ‘If’, which finally sees the band revert to doing what they do best. It is a soaring anthem, with a passionately sung chorus, and one that plays to the band’s strengths. Off the back of that momentum comes ‘Neon Bedroom’ which has more of a melodic quality, which does far more justice to the heartfelt lyrics than many of the over-complicated earlier tracks. The lengthy ‘Finished Sympathy’ concludes the album, and it feels a lot more comfortable. It is a track that takes its time to build, proceeding at a mid-tempo speed, and occasionally rising into something with a grander sense of scale to it. The album really should just end as the track fades out, but there is a silence followed by an odd sequence of noises, which sounds like an electronic gong being hit over and over. Curious.

“Later...When the TV Turns To Static” is a confusing album, never fully deciding what it’s trying to be, and as a result it lacks the accessibility and appeal of their debut, as well as the artistic finesse of “Euphoric Heartbreak”. There are a few decent tracks, but I can’t imagine that many of them would stand up alongside the band’s biggest hits. The final third of the album is the strongest aspect, and it gives a sign that Glasvegas still have a lot of artistic merit, indicating that there could still be good things to expect from them in the future.