Scottish alt-rock trio Closer return with โGlimpses,โ their long-awaited record dropping September 19th. Known since the early 2000s for their stormy riffs and chest-thumping live shows, Closer have walked through fire, setbacks, reinventions, and a bruising industry grind, to arrive here. Frontman David Wason describes the album as โfragments of who we are,โ and that idea threads through the music as snapshots of joy, sorrow, and survival woven into one unflinching narrative.
The opener โluckโ sets the tone with slow-strummed guitars, and the singer has an agonizingly slow and emotional delivery, like heโs barely holding on, on the verge of breaking down. Wason drags each syllable like a burden, singing, โI will find a way for making us laugh in our own ways/That same love will make us stayโฆโ heavy as he holds on. By track five, โWrap Your Head,โ the mood shifts, as his tender high voice climbs over layered backing vocals singing and echoing his refraining words alongside chiming guitars over an ambient soundscape. Then the drums land, pulsing and irresistible, while the singerโs voice swells with angst.
Later, โ22/7โ drifts in with soothing beats and beats that disguise deeper wounds. Wason pleads, โHold me in my sad bones. Do you see me?โ his voice unraveling into distorted shapes, as though emotion has broken language apart. And just when it seems too delicate to stand, the guitars tear open the bridge in gritty, grinding lines zooming through.
โGlimpsesโ is exactly thatโflashes of clarity inside the storm. Itโs jagged and melodic, raw and refined, and it proves Closer arenโt just survivors of their pastโtheyโre thriving storytellers of it.
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Review by: Naomi Joan