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The Wallflowers

Glad All Over

Written by: BV on 22/11/2012 22:30:35

The Wallflowers are back with their 6th studio release, titled “Glad All Over”. The Wallflowers continue to play a fusion of alternative rock, pop-rock and roots rock on this release, thereby setting the tone for an album filled with semi-monotonous “americana-like” songs, as well as somewhat eclectic guitar playing on said songs. However, even though the album seems like a monotonous listen (to me, at least) it does have a selection of quite excellent songs, as well as some seemingly misplaced songs.

The track called “Devil’s Waltz” features somewhat eclectic guitar parts like I mentioned earlier on, adding that classic stuttering tremolo effect that instantly gives off that roots-rock vibe. The vocals on this track are exceptional and even though they come off as somewhat muttered, they do fit the song quite well and add a sort of authenticity to the general roots-thing they’ve got going on. The same cannot be said about the track “Love Is a Country”, but in general I don’t think that’s the purpose of the song anyway, seeing as the song primarily consists of a spacey, dream-like pop-song atmosphere and a matching set of vocals. Not necessarily a bad thing at all, I just don’t think it fits the starting vibe of the album.

This general feeling of mine continues throughout the rest of the album, as the songs start to become funkier, and less roots-oriented. Take the song “Reboot the Mission” for example. This song starts out nicely with a self-oscillating echo getting out of control (just my kind of effect!) but quickly turns into a somewhat white-boy funky track, complete with hand-claps and everything. Normally, I would be really into this kind of thing because of the catchiness alone, but I really don’t think it fits the album at all, and all it really ends up doing is adding yet another awkwardly misplaced track to an album that isn’t exactly coherent as it is. So needless to say, I am confused and a little sad, as to why the album did not continue on with the roots-vibe, as I was really getting into it.

So to sum up, I dig the roots-thing The Wallflowers’ got going on, but I really don’t like (or at least don’t understand) the fact that this roots vibe absolutely has to be mixed up with up-tempo pop/funk tracks. Maybe I just don’t understand this particular album, but I honestly don’t think I’ll be remembering it in a year or two.

Download: Devil’s Waltz, Constellation Blues
For The Fans Of: Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks
Listen: Facebook

Release Date 10.10.12
Columbia