Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
A guitar that can roar with the rhythm. A bassline to back it up. Drums that skew decadence with consistency. A voice that ties everything together with the right melodic ribbonry. It can be said that Slammin’ Gladys have all the essential ingredients it takes to make a rock n’ roll band, but reading what comprises this band on paper and hearing them in action ala “Hold Up My Blue Sky” are two totally different things. When they’re playing, they shake up the ordinary with an extraordinary chemistry, and what results is a pop/rock sound that feels classic and modern at the same time.
This singer is bluntly describing the prospect of grey skies and an uncertain future ahead, but with a little help from his feminine muse, the weight of the world might not come crashing down on him all at once in a torrential downpour.
There’s catharsis living within every statement he sings because of his melodicism, which makes even darker verses (Sophie alone again woke up this morning said the sky was falling down / It’s been so cold and dark and gray since you’re not around) sound like they’re more retrospective than they are commentarial. Before the midway point in the track, he has us believing that an unrighteous rain can be stopped, if only by the love he tells us of so sweetly.
Two albums and two years have gone by in the story of Slammin’ Gladys, and I think it’s pretty obvious that their momentum isn’t slowing down at all in “Hold Up My Blue Sky.” Where other bands are concerned with staying up to date with what their contemporaries are doing, they’re definitively more interested in making thoughtful jams that break away from the mainstream narrative in rock right now. Theirs is a commendable mission, and something I look forward to seeing come into further development in the years ahead.
Amanda Beeler
