Glasvegas

The once prosperous land of Britain has become a garbage heap in recent times for music, making it virtually impossible to sift through all of the copycat rubbish to find something worth listening to. The fact that Scotland’s Glasvegas have been treated like royalty since they appeared last year isn’t a sign of hype but of relief. Okay, so originality isn’t their selling point but they openly list their influences as "Elvis, ‘Spectorism’ and Creation Records,” and can at least sound like they mean it. Already a big hit in the UK, Glasvegas’s debut LP is a return to the great British rock album, one steeped in a culture that hasn’t really expressed genuine passion for something since Arctic Monkeys’ debut, or the even more fittingly Manic Street Preachers’ Everything Must Go. The nod to Spector comes in the giant wall of sound surrounding heavily Glaswegian accented vocalist James Allan and the rippling waves of shoegazing guitar work. Every song sounds mammoth and vital, especially since Allan sings from his bleeding Scot heart, but at times, his earnest songwriting can get the best of him, making missteps by reciting "You Are My Sunshine” to punctuate (read: ruin) the end of "Flowers & Football Tops” or repeat the inane chant of "here we fuckin’ go!” to adrenalize "Go Square Go.” But these are minor hiccups within a record filled with sweeping, epic rock that touches on the finer moments in history and single-handedly revives an ailing music scene.