GLASVEGAS roll into Lee’s Palace on Sunday (May 29). See listing. Rating: NN
Glasvegas frontman James Allan sings with a heavy Scottish brogue that makes the lyrics on Euphoric Heartbreak a challenge to understand. That’s not to say we don’t get the overall message after 11 moaning tunes: pain and lots of it. There’s even a song called Pain Pain Never Again, a meandering soundscape opener that delivers heftily on the second word in the disc’s titl but too often neglects the first.
The album’s first proper song, The World Is Yours, contains the kind of compelling hook that made their 2008 debut such a winner. Allan has a powerful voice, but it goes to waste under drowning synths and self-indulgent production by U2’s Flood, who seems determined to drain the pop element out the band and turn them into a narcissistic mess. At least Allan can’t be accused of playing it safe – there are two songs where he attempts to write from a gay perspective, and even duets with his mom – but such gambits can’t conceal the album’s glaring lack of memorable tunes.
Top track: The World Is Yours
