Seraphina Lotkhamnga on July 8th, 2014

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A Sunny Day In Glasgow‘s sophomore release “Ashes Grammar” has been noted by both fans and critics for its wonderful amalgamation of shoegaze, dream-pop and synth-pop. The album was followed up with “Autumn, Again” in 2010 but we haven’t heard much from the sextet since. Their latest release “Sea When Absent” returns with some more sweet moments with tracks like “Crushin’,” but it’s also a record where A Sunny Day In Glasgow pushes the boundaries of that wall of sound for fierce textures. Biting yet enveloping, songs like the extremely layered “In Love With Useless (The Timeless Geometry in the Tradition of Passing)” and “Bye Bye Big Ocean (The End)” have vocals by Annie Fredrickson and Jen Goma that seem to only bob up to the surface of those tenacious melodic waves at times. Then there are times those dulcet tones command the raw guitars and synth lines to float underneath. With Jeff Zeigler (The War On Drugs, Kurt Vile) lending a hand as the band’s first outside producer, the new record is fizzing, dizzying and remarkably bold. It may have taken a few more lineup changes and four years the out of the limelight, but A Sunny Day In Glasgow’s latest release gives the band more reasons to keep on shining. “Sea When Absent” it out now via Lefse.

||| Stream: “Crushin'” and “Bye Bye Big Ocean”

||| Live: A Sunny Day in Glasgow perform July 16 at the Bootleg.

Photo by Zoe Jet Ellis