The Experience of Euphoric Heartbreak.

When Glasgow meets Las Vegas it’s like having The Killers over for tea at Mogwai’s rocket space house in some distant galaxy of harmonia. The Doves have flown in. They’re all drinking from vessels of rapture and nibbling cosmic hot rocks as they ascend to the heights of astral waves. They find Bono there, he is puzzled, and the gang direct him accordingly and wrongly- sending him to a galaxy far away.

Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\ is the latest album from Glasvegas. After releasing their debut self-entitled album in September 2008 and then a Christmas themed EP in the December of the same year; the band have since found themselves to be nominees for many prestigious awards. They won a total of four times across the tail-end of ‘08 and then further over 2009, walking away with various accolades from the NME, XFM, and the UK Music Video Awards. From the moment Glasvegas first created waves the band have been surely elevated into a strange new world of strenuous touring and countless opportunities of exposure, allowing the Glaswegian four-piece to showcase their original and most exciting ideas.

And now they return to continue along the same flight path - no direction new - just bearing a bigger, more advanced collection which firmly expands on the band that the indie rockers started out to become.

Euphoria, Take My Hand has been the first single on release; a blend of quick-march drums, souring vocals and neat striking riffs. A certified dance number bearing an almost sublime quality; adept and able to transport the listener onto a distant plain of exultancy, firmly uplifted and enlightened.

The same kind of qualities run as a theme on Euphoric Heartbreak- elevation being the key principle. Shine Like Stars is possibly the ultimate song of invincibility to feature on the album; the choral line sailing as though a comet, almost leaving the visual stain of a rainbow entering into the cosmos. There’s definitely no masking that thick Glaswegian accent, and for what reason should there be? It seems that too many bands still attempt to conform to a washed-out vocal style, often American, which makes them compatible with several other genre-sharers. But in reality it’s a joy to hear the uniquity of an accent- almost a home grown quality- and here in this track it shines through completely unpolished.

Sadly, unless listening with absolute attention, Glasvegas can easily come off as repetitive. They echo the same formula; more often than not beginning in a quiet minimalistic place before picking up the pace and intensity, and then feeding it into a climatic explosion. Lots Sometimes does it’s best at reeling the album in from the galactic heights at which we transcend after the debut single rings out, but the track slightly reminiscent of Pulp still works up to moments of grandeur and does no favours to break the pattern.

Change is the most stripped back number on Euphoric Heartbreak. It’s completely non-invasive and the piano sets a sense of stillness, accompanied by soft vocals. Eventually the sound of a women talking (in a Scottish accent) is placed over the top of the tranquil backing. Suddenly it seems we’ve joined in on a couple’s bond in times of broken intimacy - but the voice is actually singer James Allan's mum talking - so with this knowledge alone, the interpretation is subject to change. This is a feature very much evocative of previous works, and the song Stabbed off the first album stands as predecessor to Change in both tone and composition.

And so we are left on a very quiet note after a trip through euphoria. The inter-galactic tea party has come to an end and The Doves and Mogwai have gone their separate ways from The Killers- Bono was never spotted again. But what we’ve truly been shown on this journey of cosmic interchange, has been the flight path of a rocket - from it’s humble beginnings right up into the exhilarating heights. Unfortunately, the pattern has been monotonous and somewhat predictable, feasibly like a drug trip, reaching peaks of sheer ecstasy before dropping into a temporal low again to start the next track. But if you are to take the album as a whole- perhaps ignoring the second’s gap between songs- audiences are in fact offered a voyage of musical storytelling; intelligent composition included. Play it at 4am through a good speaker system in order to experience Euphoric Heartbreak to the full, and let Glasvegas take you on a journey.

Aiming to Please (leaving a fuzzy taste on the lips)…

Coventry band bound for mixed reviews.

LipShock… some kind of car accessory? Or possibly an unpleasant 4am experience - whether that be involving some victim of beer-goggle fantasy, or perhaps a kind of vendor van food. No, actually the title belongs to five disconcerting and rather brutish young men signed to Ghoulish Records, currently preparing for the release of their forth-coming debut album.

Grit n’ Glitter is what you have to anticipate- available in shops and online May 23rd- and composed suitably to grab someone’s attention. Who that someone is hasn’t yet been confirmed, but it is quite imaginable that there’s around three kinds of people who can possibly relate to such a collection of thuggish macho licks and brash invasive clamour*.

It’s practically an explosion in order for Peanut, Mikk, Johnny, Wurzul and Woodsy to officially announce that they have arrived in a sort of brash, depraved, predatory mission for bitches and booze kind of a way - which presumably, has never quite gone to plan.

For all intents and purposes LipShock are a heavy rock band with metal roots streaming in from the days of Mötley Crüe, Kiss, Velvet Revolver, and… Bad News?? If you take it for what it is, then you have good high energy, uplifting riffs, neatly woven composition, and sing-alongable vocals. It’s undeniably well produced and frivolously fun.

But if you were to take it seriously, then generic is unfortunately the word that comes flooding so very fluidly to mind. We as receptors, having experienced decade after decade of sensory bombardment are not being offered anything new or remotely inspiring from Grit n’ Glitter. This spans from vocal style coupled with death metal bands - littered with innuendo and inferably offensive connotation; to conventionally thick riffs, token overdrive, and the occasional motorcycle purr - Cryptic Bitch standing as the perfect example. And after track four the album suddenly becomes extremely repetitive and leaves nothing to the unexpected. Though this album definitely poses the question does music have to be original to be enjoyed for what it is?

Lyrically LipShock are archetypical and outwardly shallow. Divin’ in the Deep End just about sums up the size of it with "Get up and get out, shake that ass about" being the prominent line; painting a perfectly apt picture of equally as depraved women, rustled up somewhere along the lines who presumably walked out unimpressed.

But even the most starched feminists would surely agree that the lads are not completely without their charms, and the charisma cannot possibly be denied of the quintet (not to say fivesome) in the flesh or in the music. Their tunes would make for a good biker bar movie soundtrack if not a Harley advert - therefore losing the band points for originality, yet racking them up tenfold for catchiness. Track six Glamourize repeatedly chants "Sex! Drugs! Rock and Roll! Far! Out! On the dole!". Now would you have Adam and Eve-ed it?

GnG is not however without it’s softer numbers as well (albeit obligated), proving that there’s some real beauty to be found across the 12 tracks. Faith in Lies is the first of the softer tracks, and also one of the better songs on the album. Then Hey Gina starts acoustically, intermittently flows in and out of intense motions, but then really just comes down to a story of a women and her methods of self-gratification. The track does the best job at confirming and almost glamourizing the ignorant macho bullshit theme raging through this record as a whole. Over and Out is the final attempt at gentle and heartfelt, and the strings on this track courtesy of Edd Cotrill are stunning.

Grit n’ Glitter is definitely not for everyone - but it will certainly appeal to those with a taste for retro flamboyant 70’s rock metal. To put it simply the record is by no means of poor quality. But it could possibly come across somewhat like a group of sexually inept predators desperately trying to overcompensate for their inadequacies with a self-assertive, guns blazin’, and shallow onslaught. Though if you take track eight Come Inside as the final example, it just about sums up the lack of seriousness required when listening to Grit n’ Glitter.

*Meat heads.
*Asinine teenagers.
*Anyone concerned extensively with drink and women- apart from Father Jack who would possibly define LipShock as ‘gobshites’ all the same.