TAKE BACK THURSDAY - GLASS BEACH’s “the first glass beach album”
Los Angeles band, Glass Beach's 2019 debut album, the first glass beach album, sounds like an early 2000's pop punk band found a time machine to 2019, and got really into math rock, jazz, and electronic music. Not to mention countless other genres and influences incorporated into every single track. This one-of-a-kind record features 15 powerful and inventive tracks (including several ambient/instrumental interludes) that feel like nothing you've ever heard before.
The record evocatively instills concepts such as mental illness, love, gender identity, and abuse through heavy high-pitch punk vocals and guitars over synthesizers, powerful orchestral buildups, explosive drops, and jazzy percussion. These buildups and drops are what take the album to the next level. There is so much pain and emotion in everything the group's lead singer, known as Classic J (they/them), sings about, which compliments the contrasting electronic aspects and slight auto-tune put on their voice beautifully and creates this special mix of nostalgia and melancholy which is especially amplified when you are hit with a goose bump inducing wave of sound.
Frequently when there is such a wide variety of ambitious genre blending on a single album, it creates conflicting levels of quality depending on what parts the artist is particularly proficient in. However, this is not the case here. In fact, one of the three most popular songs, "(forever?????????)" is a short instrumental ambient guitar track, showcasing the group's vast grasp and love of music.
The self-titled track, "glass beach" is an incredibly emotional track where for 7 minutes and 20 seconds, Classic J desperately consoles a loved one and begs them to run away from their abusive parents. This powerful song features booming guitars and speedy drums to create a sense of urgency in the listener. Its lyrics discuss how the two will never be the same after getting their childhoods stolen from them. With the powerful climax "Until we can take back the years they've stolen from us, We'll always live like hopeless kids, But when We're with all our friends Can we just pretend That no one can hurt us? Cause hey I love you, OK? It's so hard to say That I fucking need you too". Finishing this, the instruments roar into this desperate frenzy as the two refuse to let themselves become a product of their environment.
"orchids", the outro track, is my personal favorite. The song uses the end of the world as a metaphor for anything that fills you with despair. The narrator talks about how even after smoke clouds rise so high that no one can see the stars, they still yell into the light that they're still out there hoping and that no matter how much grief they experience, their resilience will always reign supreme over the despair. The song and album end with the line "As the starlight just fades out There's no tears no celebration". Meaning that no matter what you've done or dealt with, you have to keep going until the end, because when you get there there will be no time left to do anything about it. The song uses powerful emotion and tempestuous choruses to create a bright and explosive grand finale.
I found this album by using a random number generator on a list of thousands of albums, and every time I listen to it, I'm even more grateful that I did. A completely unique project that pushes genre boundaries so far that they snap and the resulting noise blows you across the room.