New Music from A Sunny Day in Glasgow

A Sunny Day in Glasgow's second full length Ashes Grammar is set to be released by the label Mis Ojos Discos on September 15th. You can pre-order the ultra-limited, colored vinyl, double LP (or the CD ) here. I strongly recommend that you do.

I've been in something of a holding pattern with this record since it came in to my possession a few weeks ago. Most of my time these days is spent between searching for songs new and old that satisfy my addiction to catchy/straightforward pop, and re-learning how to have a genuine appreciation for certain types of straightforward rock and roll. A deepening love for soul sounds from various points scattered around the globe, and continuing to learn how to have a genuine appreciation for reggae take up most of the rest of my listening time. Still, there is a lot to be said for artists who are able to bypass those things completely (perhaps by slyly using certain elements of all of them), and create something of an alternate sonic universe that has the ability to pull a listener into it's fold, and keep that listener there until it's conclusion has been reached. This is exactly what A Sunny Day in Glasgow have done with Ashes Grammar. The songs have been expertly constructed to ensure that each one unfolds from or into each song that it follows or proceeds. Expert mixing further contributes to the likelihood that one might find oneself rather lost (in a good way) within the confines of this dreamy aural landscape. Most of the lyrics are somewhat inconsequential, instead the voices, and the words or sounds that they sing seem to be more another element in a larger overall construction of sound.

And true to the the records ability to draw you in so completely, coming out of the record is like gradually waking up after a very deep sleep. The type of waking up that tends to take until some time late in the morning (or even the afternoon) to fully occur. And yet, there are several songs on the record that can just as easily be taken out of context, and blended into another song belonging to almost any genre.