College rock. Too much of college rock just seems to be 30 year old music recycled and repackaged with a geeky smirk. Cake, Weezer, etc.--and now add The Glands to that list--are doing nothing for music other than mining a few ideas from some old vinyl and showcasing their dorky selves for all the outcasts finally free from the high school cool-iarchy. But if going to college involves finding music different than the mainstream, one could do a lot better than The Glands.
Catering to the incoming freshman with a greasy face and a graphing calculator that feels like an outcast, The Glands (which create the hormones the cause the awkward problems that lead to feeling like an outcast) borrow from every 30 year old Brit-pop album imaginable. The Beatles are taken from as if some sacred text, the members of The Glands afraid to mix with the formula much at all other than to add the standard college rock off-kilter-ness on top of it. On "When I Laugh," Ross Shapiro sings "if anybody needs me I'll be sitting in my bedroom crying" with some early Beatles backing "do-do-dos" and bluesy guitar bridge.
Pink Floyd is channeled on "Mayflower," a sprawling down-tempo number. Songs like these are the most successful for The Glands, and an album of them might have been a more easily embraceable one, especially considering how may Beatles cover albums have been released by bands from The Glands' hometown of Athens, Georgia, over the past five years. On "Mayflower," the slower tempo allows Shapiro to smooth out his vocals--quite a relief since Shapiro's voice is initially distracting and never quite grows on you, sounding quite like Bob Dylan or Jerry Garcia, constantly whining. For the pure pop studies on the Beatles text, such a voice is a big detriment; how does one expect to offer anything new on something so overdone if all the foundational pieces are not fully in place?
Much like college rock stalwarts Cake, The Glands seem, secretly, just as interested in 30 year old schlock as they are in the groundbreaking albums of that time. Listen to "I Can See my House From Here" and tell me you don't hear The Four Seasons' disco-era hit "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)."
In the end, The Gland's self-titled sophomore album is just a production record, much like the mass produced garbage the incoming freshman thought they were getting away from. The chords and melodies are basic Brit-pop, only affected and processed to give it maximal off-kilter-ness and maximal geek-cred. The songs themselves are nothing special. If you really wanted to buy that Weezer album or that Cake album but you feel like it'll give you shit points with your friends if they find out, go ahead and give The Glands a shot. Otherwise...
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