GUM
Glamorous Damage
Spinning Top Music
Dec 31, 2015
Web Exclusive
It'd be easy for Jay Watson's solo project, GUM, to be dwarfed by his involvement with Australia's psych-rock poster boys Pond and Tame Impala, easy, but not fair. The comparisons write themselves, but his second record under the moniker, Glamorous Damage, doesn't attempt to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the grandiose acidity of his various other projects. Watson knows that his atmospheric, reflective songwriting has to be a modest constituent in any Pond record, but here his haziness doesn't have to be chopped up and contextualized within a psych rock opus; for the most part he manages to downscale without downgrading. On "She Never Make to Tell," winding, phasered synths near-mask a repetitious organ melody whereas "Television Sick" is more of an 8-Bit Nile Rodgers than a nauseous Tom Verlaine. Glamorous Damage doesn't want to be cinematic or salient, and is all the more memorable for it. (www.spinningtopmusic.com)
Author rating: 6.5/10
Average reader rating: 9/10
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