Screaming Lights - GMN / Glow

Welcome back to the 1990s. ‘GMN’ is almost acid-house rave as it begins, whilst ‘Glow’ takes the scratchy guitars and thudding drums of brit pop with Liam Gallagher vocals to match. Well, Liam if he had a bit of a sore throat maybe. This is a positive thing though, another carbon copy of Gallagher inspired swagger is not what is needed right now.

‘GMN’ gathers more guitars as the song heads on which is a good job too as it emerges into quite an enjoyable affair. The retro-keyboard takes a backseat as the Editors-esque vocals take off. ‘Glow’ is certainly better though as the lo-fi guitars soothe the previous headache of crazy-electro and electric guitar mesh. Taking a more traditional approach as the crescendo of chorus reaches it’s height but it doesn’t do justice to the bands apparent genius.

Striving to create a diverse sound is one thing but ‘GMN’ and ‘Glow’ seem to differ irrevocably (apart from both being rooted in 1990’s sub-genres). Hopefully the hype which is gathering them up and tipping as the next big thing for 2009 isn’t as unfounded as these two songs suggest.