{"title":"Glass Beach","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"plastic-death-2","title":"Plastic Death","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlastic Death\u003c\/i\u003e - the second album by Glass Beach - is a follow-up record almost five years in the making. The band’s 2019 debut, aptly titled the first glass beach album, has over the years grown a cult fanbase for its unflinching depiction of queer life as mediated through social media, its oversized ambition, and its scrappy yet adventurous production.And while it took some time to arrive, plastic death sounds like the logical expansion of all the things that made their first album so special.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYears and years of relentless writing, tinkering demos, cancelled tours and a few lockdowns only strengthen the chaotic core of what makes glass beach’s maximalist approach work so well. Frontperson and primary songwriter J McClendon is joined by lead guitarist Layne Smith, bassist Jonas Newhouse and drummer William White to create something adventurous on each song. Trumpet, trombone, violin, and even marimba dance and bloom alongside the band’s own creative and dextrous instrumentation - a stunning, transformative creation that pulls from indie rock, jazz, prog, hardcore, metal, experimental, and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSongs like lead single “the CIA,” are examples of the band’s ambitious writing. It’s a dark, dancy, post-punk\/jazz hybrid, a coordinated, breathless braid of synth and saturated guitar. Tension and confusion explode into a brutal modern metal climax to close the track, flickering with glitchy production zaps and razor-sharp stops. The artwork ofplastic death is similarly rich with detail, resulting in a bioluminescent, fully-realized double album depicting sprawling scenes where moments of neon brightness shinemomentarily in a dark undersea - a metaphor for the moments of optimism and catharsis glass beach provide on these songs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This album is the Pacific garbage patch: cultural trash strewn together seemingly by accident, standing in stark juxtaposition to each other,” says McClendon. plastic death is a complete, uncompromising, playful work of art; every corner and crevice of the record’s 13 tracks, each arrangement and timbre and texture, is alive with intention and possibility.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Run For Cover Records","offers":[{"title":"Orange LPx2","offer_id":50396258566475,"sku":"2166180","price":42.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape","offer_id":50396259287371,"sku":"2170538","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50396257747275,"sku":"2166179","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/plastic_death_ff880a1c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726480208"},{"product_id":"the-first-glass-beach-album","title":"The First Glass Beach Album","description":"\u003cp\u003eGlass Beach’s debut album\u003ci\u003e The First Glass Beach Album \u003c\/i\u003eis the first album from glass beach. That’s a good place to start, but the album’s plain and descriptive title does little to explain exactly what goes on in the hour-long adventure contained therein. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe First Glass Beach Album\u003c\/i\u003e was initially self-released by the band in Spring 2019, but it’s roots date back to as early as 2015 - songwriter and band leader j mclendon started demoing songs for the album when they first moved to Los Angeles and spent three years polishing those first demos into these songs with bassist Jonas Newhouse and drummer William White. On their Bandcamp page, the band describes their sound as the accumulation of jazz, new wave, synth music, and emo distorted through the lens of punk. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe songs that make up \u003ci\u003eThe First Glass Beach Album\u003c\/i\u003e are ambitious, theatrical and chaotic. Abandoning genre limitations makes glass beach’s talent for songwriting all the more apparent - mathy guitar leads, catchy drum grooves and the constant interplay of horns, synths, and even the intermittent theremin set the perfect scene for j’s stunning vocal performance, which can shift from a charming falsetto to the lead of a sing-a-long in an instant.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Run For Cover Records","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Clear with Blue and Red Splatter","offer_id":50498561409355,"sku":"1081264","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"2LP - Clear","offer_id":57399562371403,"sku":"R6296-2482","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/19eae35b-7003-40b5-bf63-dd8dc764bf2d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727749831"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/glass-beach.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}