Glasvegas have today unveiled their new single Dying To Live, the third release from their upcoming studio album Godspeed which is due out on April 2nd. In a tweet posted earlier in the week, the band suggested that the song would serve as an ode to self-destruction, and “about chasing a feeling you know is killing you.”
The lyrics reflect that message clearly, with dark imagery alluding to drug use and a heightened sense of existential dread: “My spirit, my entity, my hopes, my breathing, my dreams are leaving/ While my needle is gently weeping/ Floating two steps forward and one step back/My dénouement closing in on black…/The tearjerker, the swan song is nigh/Wish you could see me blowing this kiss/ Don’t forget about me, don’t remember me like this.”
Sonically Dying To Live flirts with Americana and even grunge – not genres you’d tend associate with the Glaswegian outfit – although there are still strong traces of the fuzzy, wall-of-sound guitar sound that the band harnessed so successfully in the late noughties; as well as a typically heartfelt, wailing vocal from frontman James Allan.
Godspeed is the group’s first LP since 2013’s Later…When the TV Turns to Static – to date the only Glasvegas record not to reach the UK top 10. The first two single releases from the new album – soaring pop-rock number Keep Me A Space and pulsating ballad My Body Is A Glasshouse (A Thousand Stones Ago) – channel the intense, melodic feel of the band’s superb 2008 debut Glasvegas which was so memorably encapsulated on singles like Geraldine and Daddy’s Gone. Thirteen years on from that record, the Glasvegas sound – which blends the post-punk distortion of fellow Scots The Jesus and Mary Chain with warmly nostalgic echoes of early 60s pop – is still instantly recognisable; as are James Allan’s impassioned Clydeside vocal stylings.
Allan has suggested that the new LP – whilst not strictly a concept album – was envisioned as a series of streams of thought which occur to the narrator over an evening of recollection and yearning. He told NME: “The picture I imagined was that all the songs were set on one night. I wrote a couple of songs and then thought that’s maybe the way this album is supposed to be. The character basically leaves the house at the beginning of the album and starts to drive somewhere. The character’s always inside the car but there’s parts of that drive that are like a daydream, not reminiscent but the way you are when you’re out driving somewhere, your thoughts can jump from one place to the next, and then you’ll maybe notice something that has a memory in real time.”
Glasvegas had been due to take the new album on the road this spring, with thirteen dates around the UK pencilled in for April and May, culminating in a homecoming gig at the Galvanizers Rooms in Glasgow. However, due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the group announced this week that they would be pushing the shows back to early 2022, with all existing ticket purchases remaining valid.
A statement published on the Glasvegas Twitter account this Monday read: “We were really hoping (the tour) could go ahead but until gatherings are allowed and can be done safely for our fans and crew we simply cannot proceed. We know that this will be disappointing, especially after all the love and support you have shown us. There is nothing that can replace playing live on stage for us, it’s our life blood and we miss it desperately.“
