On Euphoric Heartbreak, they either pair those quirks with clumsy writing or, more often, pretend the quirks don't exist. The resulting album smears together into one gigantic well-produced stadium anthem, shining like the night sky while remaining just as inert.

There was a brief period of time where Glasvegas were technically an indie band, releasing scrappy little 7' singles and getting praise for their demos, but they never had much interest in acting or sounding like one. Their skyscraping, -produced debut from 2008 was proof enough of that, and now their second album, EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK, removes all doubts as to whether they'd ever look back. The title alone promises a thrill ride spanning the poles of human emotion, rendered in all caps as if to say, 'your feelings must be this tall to ride.' Problem is, that sort of heavy-handedness is indicative of their operation in all other aspects, and with every second attempting to be the most cathartic, EUPHORIC simply numbs you with 50 minutes of novocaine for the soul. Glasvegas started out applying principles of Spector's Wall of Sound, but on EUPHORIC, they mostly do away with the pop and fill the void with bombast.

The resulting sound forfeits empathy and intimacy and makes the listener feel like just another chump in the cheap seats. If you've got a taste for messianic flag-waving, EUPHORIC can pack an intermittent, fleeting buzz, but they're ultimately harshed by Glasvegas' soggy musicianship: Frothy with echo, guitars well and crest, synthesizers ooze gelatin, and the rhythm section doesn't make any sudden movements. And it's all captured with monolithic monotony by Flood who, fresh off his vibrant production of Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Belong, wasn't challenged to deliver anything but the banal reverb-crank bands lean on to conjure the sound of ambition where none really exists.

Glasvegas Discography

Glasvegas started out applying principles of Spector's Wall of Sound, but on EUPHORIC, they mostly do away with the pop and fill the void with bombast. The resulting sound forfeits empathy and intimacy and makes the listener feel like just another chump in. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Euphoric Heartbreak - Glasvegas on AllMusic - 2011 - Scottish alt-rockers Glasvegas. Mar 28, 2011 From EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK www.oldwaver.com. Glasvegas - Whatever Hurts You Through The Night - Duration: 4:42. How to download minecraft for mac. Gloria Verdicchio 26,657 views.

In the past, Glasvegas benefited from the 'write what you know' topicality on career highlights 'Daddy's Gone', 'Stabbed', and 'Flowers and Football Tops', but here James Allan tries to feel everyone's pain and delivers the sort of pat universality you'd expect from songs with names like 'You', 'Change', and 'Shine Like Stars'. Camped out in a Santa Monica beach house and inspired by a viewing of Thelma & Louise (dead serious), Allan penned the vaguely lesbian soap opera 'Whatever Hurts You Through the Night' but even without that origin story, it's easy enough to chuckle at the lyrics that read like cheesecake video narration ('I see you in the night walking past my house/ I wonder if you feel the same as I do'). Homosexuality is also a theme on 'I Feel Wrong' and 'Stronger Than Dirt', so credit Allan for at least being conceptually risky in a milieu often attributed to laddish behavior.

But despite good intentions, the wincing lyrics border on pandering and even exploitative, revealing little in the way of insight or palpable compassion. And that's where EUPHORIC falls flat as a whole: Everything is supposedly belted out on the behalf of you, the listener, but whether suicidal or irrepressibly hopeful, gay or straight, imagined or real, you're simply a 2-D pawn in Glasvegas' game of high-stakes emoting.

Scottish alt-rockers Glasvegas' 2008 debut landed the brooding Glaswegians a Mercury Prize nomination. Glasvegas' winning but not-so-subtle amalgamation of U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division, late-period Depeche Mode, and the Jesus and Mary Chain hinted at a band that was ready to make a go of it, and their simple, earnest lyrics, as filtered through the thick yet sweet brogue of frontman James Allan, had listeners swooning, despite all of the band's sonic redundancies. Written, demoed, and tracked at a beach house in Santa Monica, California before undergoing final production under the direction of producer Flood in London, Euphoric Heartbreak keeps the fire burning, but feeds it only the wispiest of kindling. Like their Welsh counterparts, the Joy Formidable, Glasvegas have their sights set clearly on the upper bowl of the stadium, but where TJF manage to fill that space with an unholy, hook-filled racket, Glasvegas tend to let the moment fizzle. At its most immediate, like on the standout tracks “Shine Like Stars,” the Disintegration-era Cure-inspired “Whatever Hurts You Through the Night,” and the soaring title cut, the latter of which would sit snugly amidst the teenage ruin of a John Hughes prom scene, the band sounds ready for battle, but too much time is spent slogging through the swamps of defeat, many of which are adorned with forgettable choruses and melodies that arrive at dead ends, only to bash themselves against the wall hoping for some kind of merciful respite.