No Need To Be Lonely＜Opaque Baby Pink Vinyl＞

フィラデルフィアのロックバンド、Gladieのニューアルバム。フィリーの次世代ロックシーンを牽引するローファイ/インディー・ロック。

When Cayetana disbanded, Augusta Koch found an outlet for her increasingly personal songs in Gladie. After a pair of albums produced by bandmate Matt Schimelfenig that framed discontented lyrics in an appropriately scrappy grunge-pop, they decided to bring in an outside producer for the first time for their third long-player, No Need to Be Lonely. While this move may cause one to think of cleaner surfaces and a generally stronger, more streamlined sound, in this case No Need to Be Lonely benefits from something else: a more impulsive, immediate sound generated with help from their choice, indie punk hero Jeff Rosenstock. The album opens with filtered, muffled guitar and half-drums alongside a jagged, cracking vocal melody that begins with the words "Naively mistaken." Koch repeats "It keeps me humble/It keeps me waitin," before "Push Me Down" goes full-volume with churning, distortion-fueled guitars, driving drums, and the line "I reach out my hand." The response to her offer -- "They pull me up/You push me under" -- and the turbulent underscoring of her emotions set the tone for the rest of the angsty 12-song set. Amongst constantly shifting chords progressions, she admits to "Complaining about the traffic when Im part of it" on the catchy, clattering "Car Alarm." "Fix Her" starts out as a desperate keyboard ballad, then, following a brittle a cappella break, develops into a racing rocker ("I cant fix her/But I can fix me if I try"). Later, the squealing, feedback-accented "Future Spring" examines structural power imbalance ("What keeps you quiet? What keeps you small?"), and the more reflective "Unfolding" regrets time wasted being self-critical and "Taking advice from the worst enemy I find." Vulnerable but full of punk-rock spirit and lessons hard-won, No Need to Be Lonely is also consistently hooky, with singalong choruses that often double as calls to action. ~ Marcy Donelson