Glasstown - Your Trendy Dump
(Bitter Stag)
Press sheet says: "Your Trendy Dump is not merely an indictment of a culture blindly pushed along by tastemakers and the interests of industry, but ultimately a record about accountability." Zounds! Heavy! What's clear from A for Apple is that this is gonna be some earnest rock'n'roll, and as a card-carrying member of a generation/demographic that traded in optimism and feeling for cynicism and apathy (read that in the newspaper just last week so it's gotta be true!), the microscope is most definitely scrutinizing the Glasstown Message.
Music's OK, nifty slick production with occasional horns, could be classified with late-70s/early-80s classic rock, Paisley Underground if you're charitable, or even the more radio-friendly/corporate strains of 90s alt-shit. All hooky pleasantness with ringin' guitar solos and tinkly pianos. BUT the very fact of the music's earsugary niceness causes some problems in terms of the alb's stated goals. Form/content, fellas, that's where things fall apart. Grand claims call for grand actions, and who you gonna indict when yer singin' luvly classic rock radio-ready pop ditties? Sure the vocals often come across in sweet Petty tones (courtesy sing-guy Adam Klein), and after all Petty's taking on the Machine now w HIS newie, but that one's got genuine pop hits (title track etc) on it, best stuff he done since he danced w the dead chick on the MTV and if THAT isn't subversive to mod mores then I dunno what is.
More important, Petty's also got the distinct advantage of a sound ideological base, solid like bedrock, and lyrics that crack Johnny Goodtime Popfan over the head with just as much subtlety as said rock. Glasstown is all vagueness and personal pronouns, "I" and "me," so IF the Big Social Message can be picked out from the abtstract, seemingly personal lyrics, they come across as bitter rantings rather than true rally-the-troopisms. And howzabout this one, straight outta the title track:
The fear follows the chicken
The plague follows the chicken
Blood follows the chicken
Your money follows the chicken
Pop culture as chicken, with the world in tow, see. Time for serious analysis: No indication where the chicken's headed, but we can reasonably guess that it's either going across the road (life/pop culture = bad joke?) or across the barnyard (draggin' us through shit 'n' sawdust, reducing us to beasts?). Either way, seems the general message is that we're headed straight to the slaughter, and that ain't good. So what's Glasstown's response?
Unfortunately, all the band's offering here to save the world from itself is the usual tripe about love & change through it: "Lose your heart in the moment/Let it work its change on you." Weak! Easy enough to take potshots at pop culture and its subscribers, but if yer gonna put out Music With A Message, you can't just ask questions without giving any satisfactory answers. Further, that message outta be couched in terms that (a) are clearly defined and universalized, and (b) aren't playing by the normal FM rock rules (cuz what's the point?). Your Trendy Dump is solid, harmless classic rock that can get by on its musical charms; disaster ensues when it tries to insert teeth where there ARE not and SHOULD not be any. Given the bold claims and big targets the record wants to take on, it comes up with laughably disappointing answers/alternatives to the norm... a musical norm that the band itself is up to its belly-button in.
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