GLASVEGAS return with new album ‘Godspeed’ – Listen to new single ‘Shake The Cage (für Theo)’

GLASVEGAS return with new album 'Godspeed' - Listen to new single 'Shake The Cage (für Theo)'

After the year that never was, things are finally beginning to look up. Restrictions are easing, cases are falling, and music is creeping back – there are even signs of shows and festivals before the summer is out.

And what’s more, before all that, GLASVEGAS return with their triumphant fourth album ‘Godspeed’, which will be released on April 2nd, 2021 – the music we all need right now. The latest single Shake The Cage (für Theo) sums up the dazzlingly eclectic sound of Godspeed perfectly – this is an electronic barrage with devastatingly powerful spoken word lyrics which call to mind I’m Gonna Get Stabbed from the band’s astonishing debut.

The single is perfectly positioned at the end credits of Alan McGee’ new movie ‘Creation Stories’, written by Irvine Welsh and executively produced by Danny Boyle. Hand-picked as the only current track to grace the music mogul’s biopic, it is a kind of dystopian, free-associative ‘Choose life’ sermon (’Stand on a wave / calculate quantum mechanics / Surf, dance / Believe in chance”) set to the escalating dread and claustrophobia of a John Carpenter murder-chase.

Listen to ‘Shake The Cage (für Theo)’ – BELOW:

Launched on their own label Go Wow Records, Godspeed takes place, “all on the same night, just as the sun’s going down,” The album presents a fragmented portrait of a single evening’s events, one James half-jokingly compares to American Graffiti’, director George Lucas’ 1973 coming-of-age classic, “where everything happens in one night, and nothing major goes down plot-wise, but you still love the characters and the world.”

Each song in its own right as diverse as the next, pulling James Allan into each world with free reign to experiment in this latest masterpiece.

Glasvegas have announced a one-off live stream performance from St Lukes Church in Glasgow for Be Kind Live raising funds for the charities Tiny Changes, Canonage Youth and Street Work. Premiering brand new album tracks from Godspeed, the special show will take place on April 9th 2021 and will be broadcast online via Veeps. Glasvegas full live UK tour will take place in February 2022.

James Allan is first and foremost an artist and his refusal to be bound by convention, by rules, by accepted limitations, by society or by boundaries of any kind makes Glasvegas a band who at times defy categorisation. What other band could be responsible for such diverse tracks as Shake The Cage (für Theo), Keep Me A Space and My Body Is A Glasshouse (A Thousand Stones Ago), taking examples only from the Godspeed singles you’ve heard so far? Simply, none. There can be only one – and they are Glasvegas.

For James, who has spent an agonising seven years crafting this album, from writing to demoing, recording to producing and engineering, starting when he was living in Sweden, and finished it in lockdown in his spare-room studio in Glasgow’s east end.

That ethos of listening only to what his heart and soul tell him is the key to everything. It’s the only rule he will even consider listening to. He said: “If you follow your heart and your instincts, it might be difficult and you’ll trip yourself up at times – but usually, it works out. Making this album has probably made me understand myself a bit better as a person, to be honest. And it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on anything in my life.” From strident techno to joyous singalong anthems, Godspeed captures that quintessential Glasvegas essence – incomparable, uncategorisable, and ultimately just fucking great music that actually means something. For that alone, welcome back Glasvegas – we really need you right now

TRACKLISTING
Parked Car (Exterior)
Dive
Dying To Live
Shake The Cage (für Theo)
Keep Me A Space
Parked Car (Interior)
Cupid’s Dark Disco
My Body Is A Glasshouse (A Thousand Stones Ago)
In My Mirror
Stay Lit
Godspeed

TOUR DATES
Thursday 3rd February 22 Picturedrome Holmfirth
Friday 4th February 22 Warehouse Leeds
Saturday 5th February 22 O2 Academy 2 Liverpool
Sunday 7th February 22 Asylum Birmingham
Tuesday 8th February 22 Chalk Brighton
Wednesday 9th February 22 Garage London
Friday 11th February 22 Sub89 Reading
Saturday 12th February 22 Thekla Bristol
Sunday 13th February 22 Rescue Rooms Nottingham
Tuesday 15th February 22 Gorilla Manchester
Wednesday 28 February 22 Foundry Sheffield
Thursday 17th February 22 University, Students Union Newcastle
Thursday 24th February 22 Galvanizers Rooms Glasgow

Tickets at: https://glasvegas.plctrmm.to/live

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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