A Sunny Day in GlasgowAshes Grammar
(2009, Carrot Top Records)
RIYL = My Bloody Valentine, Mercury Rev,
A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s follow up to their terrific debut, Scribble Mural Comic Journal, is getting super slept on, which is funnily ironic because it’s just about the dreamiest slice of pop to come out this year. Even more hazy and dreamlike than the new Atlas Sound – for serious (PS, Logos kills it, but that’s a whole ‘nother review)! I’m not surprised though. With twenty-two tracks to its credit, the album is gigantic in scope. I'll admit that, at first glance, I was a bit nervous that I would get lost in all the delicate mist the band creates. However, now that I have had the album for a month or so, all I keep wanting to do is get lost in the mist. There is just so much blurry goodness packed within Ashes Grammar waiting around every corner. The smooth, vibrantly echoing electronics, the wavy atmospherics, the mirror chamber of vocals and the hooks…THE HOOKS! Ashes Grammar is simply the album that keeps on giving. And now that I have become more familiar with its soft corners and entrancing bursts of bliss, instead of having anxiety about being able to digest everything I hear, I now feel completely relieved whenever the album is streaming through my headphones. It's just so reaffirming. It feels like all the knots and tension within every muscle in my body is disintegrating with each note. Additionally, there is a heavy dose of My Bloody Valentine running through this album in the best way possible. Between A Sunny Day in Glasgow and A Place To Bury Strangers, I think we’ve got both the noisiness and the dreamy pop haze of MBV covered. Personally, though, I’m much more attracted to Ashes Grammar’s version of MBVness. I kind of hate even saying that though because there is so much originality here that it must be taken on its own merit. It’s like what Spike Jonze has done with Where The Wild Things Are. The film is not the book, but most certainly influenced by it, and both stand on their own as incredible artistic feats. Ashes Grammar is a similar artistic feat. And MVB isn’t the only relation here. Just checkout the CMG review – they pretty much can’t stop comparing the thing to Merriweather Post Pavilion; a comparison which also has its merit (at least within the context of that review). So, in the end, the amount of tracks (a lot of which are short in-betweens) and the length of the album is simply a bonus. Its like two great albums for the price and consistency of one. Just absolutely lovely and one you’ll surely see on my list come years end.
-Thistle
A Sunny Day in Glasgow on MySpace
