The somewhat condescending assumption that radio ready albums are ‘lesser’ than grainier, more difficult work is one that has retaken a disappointingly firm grip on contemporary culture in recent years. Just take the enormous sniff let out by critics and consumers alike when Margaret Glaspy’s Emotion And Math was picked as triple j’s album of the week, as though the selection sliced the work’s cool factor in half.
And yet to deny Glaspy’s album is to deny one of the most relentlessly enjoyable records of the year. Inhabiting the same slick yet sad, rough yet ready territory as records like Ryan Adams and King Krule’s 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, the work balances hurt and heart.
Tracks like No Matter Who seem ready suited for both late night revelry and later night introspection, whereas the stripped back Somebody To Anybody shows off Glaspy’s skills as a songwriter.
“I keep my head down and my eyes wide,” she sings, carving out the kind of chorus one can imagine fans writing on their walls, or getting printed on their skin. After all, Glaspy writes lyrics that fans like to keep close – words you can build a world around.
BY JOSEPH EARP
