Glass Towers' full-length debut album, 2014's
Halcyon Days, showcases the Australian outfit's driving, poetic, '80s post-punk-influenced sound. Working with producer Jean-Paul Fung, who previously helmed projects by
Last Dinosaurs,
Theophilus London,
Birds of Tokyo, and others,
Glass Towers have crafted an epic long-player centered around the brooding vocals and earnest songwriting of frontman Benjamin Hannam. Primarily, this is guitar-based rock that brings to mind such touchstones as
War-era
U2 and
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness-era
Smashing Pumpkins. There is also a deep undercurrent of '90s shoegaze on
Halcyon Days, and tracks like the languid, evocative "Gloom" and the grand "You're Better" recall
Ride's '60s psychedelic rock-inflected experimentations. That said,
Halcyon Days is not an exercise in trying to slavishly re-create '80s and '90s alt-rock. On the contrary,
Glass Towers make their own brand of catchy, uptempo dance-rock tracks that would fit nicely next to cuts by such similarly inclined contemporaries as England's
White Lies and Ireland's
Two Door Cinema Club. To these ends, tracks like the opening "In This City," "Halcyon," and "Griffin" are rhythmically propulsive, melodic numbers, full of wide-framed electric guitar delay hinged upon Hannam's soaring baritone croon. Ultimately, with
Halcyon Days,
Glass Towers have delivered an impressive debut that grows on you the more you listen. [
Halcyon Days was also released on LP.] ~ Matt Collar