Glaare : "To Deaf and Day"

Sometimes when I am sorting through the mass of music either in my in-box or I am hunting down I often think "Somewhere out there this is someone's favorite band". This can be odd ,though there is certainly no accounting for taste. This was claimed to be the favorite band of a fellow Cvlt Nation writer. If you took some shoe gazing guitar and married to female fronted dark-wave it would result in something similar to the California band Glaare. I can appreciate the Siouxsie influence is there but it doesn't define the totality of their existence. The second song is not as urgent as the first and just kind of feels like filler in comparison.It's not a weak song, the first song was just much more emotionally powerful so the dynamic drop was more noted. "First Rain" has a more captivating beat and pulls me in where the previous song did not, though if we are using the opener as the measure for the rest of the album then this song is a little more post-punk, but not as hypnotic.

The guitars give enough of an organic element to smooth out the more electronic instrumentation On "Desiree" I think having more organic instruments in the mix might have given the song more impact. At this point calling the album goth might be a little bit of an exaggeration. "Ruins" takes us closer to the point as it's the darkest song on the album so far. While the more Cure like guitar melody is welcomed "Isky" breezes by until it locks in more midway into the song. The song also feels like it begins to run out of gas in the last minute. Synths play a much larger role in "Suffer". The guitar comes in at almost a minute before the subdued vocals that are mixed behind a filtered haze of effects. The come forward on the mix when it gets to the chorus. Not the strongest song on the album, but still pretty decent.

"Surrender/ Control" has a more pounding rock feel , that actually brings in a heavier dynamic. This is certainly what the album needed to switch things up as it was beginning to lose me by floating away in ambiance. I'll give this album an 8.5 . It works in many ways. Why did it not score higher you ask ? It could have used a little more meat on it's bones and would have benefited from a more organic base of instruments being plugged in. Overall it has many strengths, the vocals are excellent, they have their own identity and this is not simply a tribute to their 80s fore fathers. They are not my favorite band at the moment, but a band I will keep my ears open for .