Release Date: September 30, 2022
Genre: Dream Pop, Indie Rock
Label: Independent
Winnipeg dream pop/indie rock outfit Glassreal is back with their eight-track debut full-length studio album Lustre, which is the follow-up to their debut EP, Unalike (2019). Glassreel began as a partnership between longtime musical collaborators, vocalist Kelly Beaton and guitarist/vocalist Trevor Graumann. Sometime later, the lineup was rounded out by bassist Ken Phillips and drummer Andrew Workman. The band has mustered up a name for themselves, sharing the stage with acts like Wintersleep, Partner, Said the Whale, and Tokyo Police Club's Dave Monks. The success of their debut EP and the handful of singles that followed led their music to be featured on over one hundred radio stations across North America -including CBC and NPR. The Unalike EP also landed on Canada's !earshot National Top 50 for numerous weeks. Their music has also been played on Television, being in several episodes of celebrity chef David Rocco's National Geographic series Dolce Italia and Dolce Southeast Asia. Glassreel wrote the majority of the Lustre in 2020. Then later recorded Lustre at two different recording studios in Winnipeg throughout mid-2021 and early 2022. The band first hunkered down at Argyle Studio in August 2021 with music producer Cam Loeppky (The Weakerthans, Duotang). The second time the band hit the studio was shortly after the holidays with Mike Beaton at Private Ear Recording. Both Trevor Graumann and Kelly Beaton also co-produced the album. Lustre was mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Philip Shaw Bova (Father John Misty, Angel Olsen, Andy Shauf) at Phil's Lab in Ottawa. Glassreel's brand new eight tracks featured on Lustre features lyricism that's darker than in the past, and just as unique as they are, they're both haunting and resounding. These songs have a recurring theme of existential dread, and while a lot of that emanates from the COVID-19 pandemic, the band was reflective and introspective when writing the album leading the album to also reflect on instances of apathy, self-consciousness, and destructive relationships with mystifying wordplay. That's where the title of Lustre is derived from -the nature of the album's reflective and introspective material. Songs such as "Bigger Than You" and "Fix Is In" are about walking away from destructive relationships and grappling with the forces of impassiveness and self-consciousness in order to walk away from personal struggles. Whereas songs like "Last Good Advice" is about saying goodbye to somebody before their time -furthering the theme of existential dread. Sonically, Glassreel packs a punch on Lustre by presenting a maturity to their sound, which is strongly backed by incorporating some new sounds and ideas to the songwriting of Lustre -something the band firmly credits producer Mike Beaton for. There is no one song on the record that sounds alike. "Bigger Than You" is quite the shoegaze musical composition that's driven by an old, untuned grand piano. "Compromise" is, at the core, an alternative rock tune, the band blends in elements of jazz for a fun little genre-bending piece. Whereas tracks such as "Last Good Advice" and "Free Time" showcases class glassreel, but with a keyboard that sounds more like a chime of a wind-up box. Giving them an old-timey feel to them. On these eight tracks, the band brings back their signature vocal interplay stronger than ever and mixes it with striking musical arrangements and indelible melodies. Glassreel is extremely experimental with their sound on this album. Still riding the high from the success of their previous releases, Glassreel takes some musical risks by trying out some new ideas and sounds on the record. However, the heart of their sound is drawn from a diverse set of influences that include the names of Fleetwood Mac, Aimee Mann, the Pixies, Fiona Apple, and The New Pornographers, just to name a few. Be sure to pre-save Lustre on Spotify, iTunes, or Bandcamp.
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