Continuing in their quest to cause me marital grief due to the ever increasing number of vinyl arrivals, Last Night From Glasgow released the latest album from The Gracious Losers last week.
This supremely talented collective have come together once again to create a sublime soundtrack to my various trips around Scotland for work this week.
Last Night From Glasgow Patreon
Taking these soul soothing tunes with me reminds me to mention that, if vinyl isn’t your thing, and I’m not judging, you can join in the party with a monthly subscription that allows you to access all the labels releases in digital format. If you need further inducement, here is what you are potentially missing out on…
The aforementioned Gracious Losers – Six Road Ends album (more of which shortly)
Hadda Be – Another Life (30/4)
BMX Bandits – Star Wars – reissue (4/5)
Ace City Racers – Citalodisco (25/6)
Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders – Atoms and Energy (2/7)
wojtek the bear – Heaven by the Back Door (16/7)
Sister John – I Am By Day (30/7)
Ross & the Real Lifers – Realife is Dead (6/8)
TeenCanteen – This is How it Starts (13/8)
Deer Leader – title TBC (27/8)
Life Model – title TBC (10/9)
Trashcan Sinatras – I’ve Seen Everything – reissue (17/9)
Broken Chanter – title TBC (1/10)
Lola in Slacks – Moon Moth (22/10)
The Poems – Young America (29/10)
The McCluskey Brothers – Favourite Colours (29/10)
Nicol & Elliott – The Three Eps (Nov)
Top Secret – TBC – (12/11)
Annie Booth – title TBC (19/11)
bis – Return to Central reissue (26/11)
bis – Low Level (26/11)
Luximon – title TBC (3/12)
Medicine Men – Remix LP (10/12)
Superhuman – Suhu (TBA)
EPs from The Martial Arts, Mt Doubt and much more… phew
So Don’t Dilly Dally (or Indeed Shilly Shally) and get subscribed now www.patreon.com/lastnightfromglasgow
Six Road Ends
Back to The Gracious Losers, and their second album Six Road Ends. What they have produced is a highly addictive 1970’s throwback alt country folk rock masterpiece.
From the short intro of Till I Go, with its multi layered vocals and atmospheric riff, at times channelling Steeleye Span, the scene is set. The arrival of the album is well and announced with the appropriately colossal sound of The Big Land. The wonderful arrangement of the song with its break and epic build in the second half mean that this very much has a feel of their very own The Chain. Flood Came Down the Hill follows in impressive fashion, not wanting to be outdone by the effusiveness of its predecessor, the song prevails in its stripped back form, crisp plucked and strummed guitars taking the lead, the sound perfectly bolstered by some adroit harmonica playing.
This group of highly talented musicians, all rightly lauded for their own bands and projects – counting amongst them Sister John and Thrum – have together created something quite magical in the eleven tracks that form Six Road Ends.
Understated Beauty
You can’t go wrong when you have songs like the atmospheric understated beauty of single Loath to Leave and the affecting slow build of Everything Begins, Everything Ends, adding symphonic strings and a howling sax to great effect, all the way through to the magnificent bluesy soul of You Got the Reach which also has the touch of slacker rock to it too.
Then there is the pure joy of the two minute romp that is The Fire at the Bottom of the Sea complete with hand claps and woooo’s, and of course the strident singing guitar backed by banjo and deeply resonant cello of the instrumental track, The Accomplice, before it develops into a soaring flute led seraphic rhapsody. Not to forget the beautifully uplifting country tinged Come When You’re Ready, with a nod to one of my favourite classic black and white movies.
The closing duo of tracks are particularly evocative and emotionally stirring. In penultimate song, The Lead and The Light, the production is so effective in making the song so, well, affecting. The passion is palpable in the pleading of the lyrics, a wish to just be able sleep and forget. Final song When I’m Feeling Better Than How I’m Feeling Now takes that passionate emotion and with the addition of imploring steel guitar ramps up the melancholy several notches but somehow still manages to be one of the most uplifting and hopeful songs on the album.
If this album is anything to go by, 2021 is going to be another top year for Last Night from Glasgow.