The Glass Gentlemen
Self-Titled
Self-Released
Street: 10.18
The Glass Gentlemen = Reggie and the Full Effect + The Statistics + We the Kings
 
In some ways, The Glass Gentlemen share a lot in common with the psychodrama of early Cursive recordings. There is that melodic, vocal-chord tearing sing-scream, the tendency for delivery to outweigh content and the sheer emotional wallop of someone completely losing their shit in a song. But the comparisons stop there. Instead of jagged, angular progressions, you’ve got slick power chords with a thick film of buzzy synths, and instead of obtuse lyrics, you’ve got lines ripped from some emo kid’s Myspace pep talk. That’s fine. Cursive was aping mid-’90s Chapel Hill indie rock—these gentlemen are partying like third-wave emo never crested. For what they do, they do well. Their ragged-throated delivery over an early-aughts slew of pretty breakdowns and cathartic, crescendo-laden choruses are extremely well executed on 90 percent of the album. The soon-to-be-playing-over-a-Smith’s-PA-system muzak of the Metro Station send-up “Radio Heart,” however, is unforgivable. –Ryan Hall