I find it slightly odd when new young groups show up, completely in thrall to the early Eighties Synth Pop scene, because as someone who lived through it, I can assure you that a lot of it seemed quite daft at the time, even to a fifteen year old.
All that staring into the distance, crushed ice, and arch, angular body language and cheekbones and haircuts that could have sliced bread. It was a series of cliches at the time and even though it produced plenty of truly great Pop Music, much of the baggage was utterly laughable and part of the reason why after a while the world seemed to be crying out for The Smiths and R.E.M.
Don't tell that to Calfornia duo Glass Spells mind. Their latest album Shattered is like a lovingly erected Modern Romantic / Synth Pop meccano edifice, not a note or hair out of place. It's all painstakingly and artfully put together, and, if you're that way inclined, you can spend a diverting half an hour of spot the soundbite as OMD, Visage, The Human League, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, A Flock of Seagulls, Landscape Ultravox and the rest of that pack flash past.
I'm not entirely sure what inspires this slavish historical reconstruction. Young American bands seem particularly prone to it, utterly in awe of records made under cloudy English skies almost forty years back. The Umbrellas did something similar with C-86 on their eponymous debut which I reviewed a few days back.
I thought that was a better realisation of a long gone scene and a better set of songs than are on show on Shattered. There's nothing whatsoever wrong with this record but really it tempts me to give Rage in Eden another listen and I assure you that hasn't happened for years.
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