Glass Beach - "Plastic Death"

Aquatic Indie Rock with multitudes of influences

Glass Beach is a new-to-me artist, but the band is also still fairly young, with Plastic Death being only their second album. Their debut, literally titled The First Glass Beach Album, released in 2019. Their sound is primarily Indie Rock, but with several other genres and styles mixed in: Math Rock, Art Rock, Jazz, and more; there are moments on the album where the band nearly swerves (quite competently) in the area of Prog Rock. And it all comes together to make this bizarre-but-smooth sound. Part of that is the apathy towards diction; enunciation of the lyrics often goes out the window.

Opener “Coelecanth” embraces the smooth, semi-atmospheric approach, but the band shows its chops in the tracks that follow, pulling out some serious Punk influences in the intro of “Slip Under the Door”. The weird vocal decisions persist, though, often ruining what would otherwise be a perfectly good track. On the softer, smoother songs, this can sound like the vocalist, J McClendon, is having a stroke; in the more energetic, heavy sections, he sounds like a gremlin.

That’s not to say the McClendon is a bad vocalist, by any stretch. He’s very talented, and it shows through frequently enough. There are just some weird stylistic choices being made on occasion. And then there’s “Puppy”, a track which is almost excellent because the composition really comes together…except for the basic and completely uninteresting vocal melody. With a band like Glass Beach, there’s a chance that that’s part of the point or something, but it really holds the song back, I think.

There’s a lot going on throughout this album. There are moments of raw sonic beauty. There’s a lot of technicality and complexity in many of the tracks, and many of the songs seem to evolve as they progress. These are all things I love in any composition. Yet, somehow, I find myself having trouble maintaining interest despite that the band is, on paper, doing lots of interesting things, musically.

The penultimate track is almost ten minutes long! You guys know how I love long songs!

I feel like this album deserves love – from somebody. It’s not getting it from me. It’s not bad, but given how readily my mind has dissociated from it every time I’ve given it a spin, I can’t really classify it as ‘good’, either, even if I can’t quite put my finger on why it continues to disinterest me. It isn’t just  the vocals; there’s something more.

If you like Indie Rock or Art Rock, Post-Punk or Prog, you might consider giving this one a listen. I’m really hoping somebody can either figure out what isn’t working or call me an idiot for not liking something that’s clearly amazing.

Rating: Yellow