Unique hurdles materialize for bands who decide to write music under the shoegaze/dream pop category. There is an intrinsic quality in the genre to inspire feelings of nostalgia and introspection, so it makes little sense to complain about A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s latest release because it lacks any vision for the future. But I’m afraid that is what it’s come to for The Scene That Celebrates Itself.
Autumn, Again became more and more frustrating with every turn, which is a rare thing for music I listen to. Usually, albums I enjoy on the first spin steadily grow on me. Perhaps it is unfair, though, to pick on this album alone. It just happened to be what I was listening to when I realized how stale and repetitive nu-gaze noise pop (or whatever people are calling it today) has become.
That being said, this album has its appreciable moments. Tracks like “Drink Drank Drunk” and “Sigh, Inhibitionist (Come All Day with Me)” are a pleasure, but unfortunately, do not deliver the rest of the album from plainness. At the very most, this record will probably inspire newcomers to explore further and find more in the genre (e.g. A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s somewhat superior previous LP Ashes Grammar). Sadly, I’m afraid there is nothing in this album to distinguish it from numerous others. Here is where I will regrettably point to the irony of Track 3’s title: “Petition to Refrain from Repetition.”
Autumn, Again follows the prompt, but ultimately fails to offer something fresh or exciting to a milieu in desperate need of just that. The opening is forty-three seconds of noise, and the closing track sounds a lot like a closing track. It has the word “Autumn” in the title (appropriately timed for the States because fall weather is setting in), and does well to capture that mood. Overall, it is a safe release. Nothing is particularly wrong with it outside of being an uninspired copy of what has been done many times before.
Oh, did I mention it is absolutely free? Just click here, and donate if you wish.
I love shoegaze, and I’m very thankful that it got its second chance in the 2000s. But it’s time to move past this stagnant funk of trying to record Loveless: Part II. It’s gorgeous music, we get it! But gorgeous things have to grow and change to stay alive and Autumn, Again is a perfect example of what is keeping that from happening for the new shoegaze movement– a scene that appears to be in the season of Autumn…again…and again…and again.
