Kids In Glass Houses

Peace

Written by: JWM on 08/10/2013 10:50:28

Perhaps taking the biggest risk of their relatively short careers, British rock band Kids In Glass Houses practically sprinted into a brick wall thinking they would break through. Although I personally did not listen to their third album "In Gold Blood", if their is one thing I respect bands for, it is having the balls to fix something which isn't even broken. I mean, a band who got famous for being good a writing singles decided to write a concept album; that takes far more balls than most dare to admit. It was an album about a love story which formed in the context of a Mad Max-inspired post-apocalyptic world. But despite their previous reach, their popularity somehow crashed at this point.

Despite all the hit singles and all the hard work creating rock music that took over the radio they still were confined to a single music scene. This is unfortunate as crossover success helps build some of the biggest rock bands, and despite being a union between indie, punk, alternative and pop rock, Kids In glass Houses never exactly established strong footholds in any of those. So now they offer us "Peace", an album they've written focused on being an album of singles.

"Peace" opens the album in great melodic swing. "We're singing peace in the valley and sex in my soul. Death to my body but we made it rock and roll" They mean practically nothing, but they hook onto your cortex like a dirty whisper from a lover as you're singing along to this track. Of course this is only the beginning, pretty much one of the most defining songs of their career is the indie rock moodiness of "Drive". It's dark synths and moody lyrics of infatuation are far more powerful than anything else on the album, perhaps even to the point of being the best song on the record.

What is on offer with "Peace" is a very diverse offering of single-worthy tunes aligned with their objective. Some are like the electro pop punk of "Set Me Free", giving an early Panic! At The Disco feeling, or the Fall Out Boy-inspired energy of "VIP" which, if reequipped with Patrick Stump's voice, would fit on "Infinity On High" with incredible ease. You are then faced with the much slower, and much more dominating anthemic songs like "Novocaine", "Stormchasers" and the lighters-in-the-air worthiness of "Nightcrawler" which gives the album an epic arena-filling spectacle to conclude the album.

It's definitely a difficult one for me as they've done a shameless, radio-orientated poprock album, regardless of what sub-genres you hear going on and it definitely stands on it's own two feet rather than hawking through their legacy. On the other side, however, I felt during the listen it lacks the brilliant songwriting which helped define and epitomise their earlier material. Ultimately then it's still hard to say if they'll get that golden opportunity to swell and blow in the mainstream's faces or continue as one of the underground's worse kept secret.

Download: Drive; Novacaine; Black Cloud; Nightcrawler
For The Fans Of: You Me At Six; Twin Atlantic
Listen: Kids In Glass Houses's facebook

Release Date: 30.09.2013
Transmission Recordings

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