Glasvegas - A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)
Much as these annoying cash-ins get squarely right on my breast area and are clearly some conniving little record label executive's mean way of ripping us all off; why don't you just come around my house and steal my credit-crunch cornflakes you mean-spirited cock! Anyway I'm getting way-laid with my argument here. What I was trying to say is much as these tie-ins bug me I have this urge to hear anything Glasvegas release and as such I dipped my hand into my ever emptying pocket and forked out for 'A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)' which instantly outstrips Coldplay's little rip-off mini-album as all six tracks featured here are new to the Glasvegas canon.
So what does 'A Snowflake Fell...' tell us? Well for starters much as this is a Christmas album it's not the sort you'll be playing to Granny on Christmas morning well not if 'Fuck You, It's Over' is anything to go by. However, this is a continuation of Glasvegas self-titled debut album albeit with the Christmas theme running through it. Much like their album dwelt on themes of knife crime, bullying & single-parenting; here we get relationship breakdowns, homelessness, & of course Christmas.
Opener 'Careful What You Wish For' begins with the lyrics
'Christmas time is here again/It don't seem so different when/Last year which was filled with emptiness/All around directionless'
set to melodic piano and slow building atmospherics that arrive at a Romanian choir harmonising. It's short and sharp and really leads the way to the essence of this album.
'Fuck You, It's Over' has to be one of the best names for a Christmas song. It's no Slade anthem that's for sure. Telling the tale of a girl's love being ripped open and discarded like wrapping paper by her boy with the lines
'I gave you all the love a boy could ever need/And in this world there's only one of me/All there is left is the realisation/We were never meant to be' I'm sure it's something that we can all identify with that dawning that this just wasn't how things were meant to end and at this time of year it's almost doubly painful.
Something we maybe can't identify with is the theme of the next song but it's something that maybe we should think about. 'Cruel Moon' sees James Allan singing about being homeless at Christmas out on the cold streets watching the world pass-by and being ignored. 'So walk on by and I'll be fine/This cardboard cover keeps away the ghouls of the night'' made all the more haunting when set to sleigh bells, that reverberating guitar and a gentle Christmas melody.
'Please Come Back Home' is almost like a sequel to debut album opener 'Flowers And Football Tops' with it's theme of loss and the need to have those lost or no longer around for whatever reason back by your side at this time of year; though, you can also see elements of 'Fuck You, It's Over' in this track whereby a love is lost and the realisation you shouldn't have let it go.
Title track 'A Snowflake Fell...' is again all melodic piano and understated vocals that conjure up a rather beautiful soundtrack and is very much the most uplifting thing to be found amongst the six tracks with lyrics such as 'The ringing from the bells keeps screaming out love/As snow falls from the heavens above' you can almost picture it in 'It's A Wonderful Life' the Christmas film about a man wanting to commit suicide but then realising the joys of life at Christmas time.
To finish we get a mournful very un-Christmas-carol like 'Silent Night' that although sticking with the lyrics through Allan's droll delivery blossoms into a full carol version in it's outro with the choir returning to inject that little bit of Christmas merriment into the record.
Much as these releases bug me there is certainly something magical in this release maybe because it's specific in it's Christmas message and not just a bunch of album off-cuts. I'm not sure really what it is but I like it and will certainly have a wee listen on Christmas day.
View Glasvegas debut album review here:
http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews...gas-album.html
http://www.myspace.com/glasvegas
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Mark Stevenson
Comment Posted on: December 1, 2008, 05:15 PM
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