The debut LP for this group of Sydneysiders, Halcyon Days is an interesting combination of indie rock and post-punk whose primary strengths are balance and moderation. Composition on this record is nothing out of the ordinary, but the band has managed to infuse standard indie rock songs with the energy and ringing tone of post-punk, without allowing it to alter the compositions themselves. This is most prevalent on tracks like the jangly, almost Smiths-influenced “Jumanji,” or “Griffin,” and less accentuated on distorted tracks like “In This City” and “Lust For Life,” with the closing track “Foreign Time” diverging completely as a sweet and melodic bit of indie haze.
There is a good combination and alternating of elements throughout, sign that this band doesn’t take itself too seriously, and a few surprise keyboards or chord changes popping in randomly shake things up pleasantly, but the record is a solid piece of work; it knows where it wants to go and what is needed to best establish its sound, without lagging on or adding too much of anything. Perhaps it’s due to the distance that divides this band with most of its colleagues in the genre, but it seems very likely that this record could have only been made somewhere away from the direct influence of American culture.
Four of the 11 tracks on the album were taken from a previous EP, and the other songs have been five years in the making—one would expect a masterpiece to have taken so long. But good things take time, and Glass Towers can learn to pick up the pace following the first effort, so we can expect good things to come.
In A Word: Poised
