Album Review: Glasvegas – “Glasvegas”

Glasvegas takes its name from hometown Glasgow and Sin City, which means that the Scottish quartet has an uncanny knack for haphazardly conjoining words and musical trends. To the surprise of no one, the NME crowd has anointed these Clash look-alikes London's latest and greatest craze du jour as This Month's Beatles manage a sound that pillages from almost every English musical movement of the last three decades. Shoegaze grandeur? Check. Ringing Edge-style guitars? Check. The Smiths' melodrama? Oh yeah, it's there -- most shamelessly in the form of "Lonesome Swan," a hackneyed rip of "I Know It's Over" with a guitar line set to the latter song's "Then why are you on your own tonight?" melody. Particularly grotesque is the Joe Strummer knock-off "Stabbed" that repeats ad nauseam, "I'm gonna get stabbed."