Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad: The Gladeyes “Honey Pie”
Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. We might have borrowed this idea from thesinglesjukebox.com but we love that site and we hope that you like this.
[Bandcamp]
[Grade: 6.0]
Dan Taipua: I have a hard time connecting to most of Lil’ Chief’s releases; mainly, I think, because I’m a dude and have been in a fight before.
There’s plenty to like here though: really clean/direct recording and production, gentle and humourous lyrics, and one of the best untreated singing voices we’ve heard since the start of GSG. The thing I like most about the song is its sense of measure. Everything is in range: the melody doesn’t ramp up or drag on for a hook, the guitars aren’t washed out into blisswave, the lyrics are well-tread but not overrun by cliche – I like all the mismatched metaphors and the way the she says “cyat” :3
I’d planned to make fun of the ‘Don’t Stop Believin” bassline, but now all I want to do is listen to Shadows Explode and update my Tumblr. [8]
Maryann Savage: It’s okay. Maybe boys will like this, cause they want a nice girlfriend? If it was only a bit dumber, it could be cool like the Shaggs. But it’s not dumb, so it’s okay. “A bird and a cat, hand in hand”: delusions of gender. I think this review shows that I’m jealous of cute girls!! I definitely AM jealous of cute girls. This is still basically ‘okay’, though. [5]
Petra Jane: Somewhere around listen number four, I realised why I hate just about every song released in the last decade: everyone’s trying too damn hard these days. Not The Gladeyes, though. ‘Honey Pie’ nails the bleary-eyed, effortless brilliance of late-nineties Matador Records. Think Helium or Yo La Tengo on a stoner buzz: perfect, hazy, half-speed lo-fi pop. [8]
Kim Gruschow: A sweet and slow ol’ timey voice over the beginner’s chord practice guitar strum. It almost gets into buzzy rock out territory but sadly the drummer fell asleep and stoped playing so they had to end the song before letting loose. [4]
Michael McClelland: There’s very little to be grabbed by in this, besides the bass hook – but they sure as hell weren’t the first, there. At least the end with “I found a black hole / Where nothing grows” is charming, but I wish there were more of this kind of thing. It’s soothing and nice, so I’ll give it that. [6]
Fraser Austin: I like twee, I do. I like most of the Sarah records catalog, back when twee was tough as nails and being a bit upset about shit was because you were being self aware and thoughtful. So I always wanted to like a contemporary band like The Gladeyes. The sound’s right but the lyrical content always feels lifted from a Frankie magazine, singing more about the doilies they made than the heavy shit they think about. I mean, birds and cats and bees and stuff are all well established twee cliches. I’d rather hear love songs about the dude or lady you meet at a WINZ-getting-back-into-the-work-force-meeting set to a jangle-y guitar and lazy snare. Something darker. [5]
I love it, great record
Sounds like Camera Obscura on quaaludes, and that’s not a good thing. Who listens to this sort of stuff? Slightly dumpy and bespeckled Art school girls who like to wallow in the idea they’re social misfits while scrolling through three hundred numbers on their cell phones? Actually, on second listen it does has a kind of vacant prettiness, like that slightly hip first girlfriend whose mystery always seemed so elusive until you meet her a few years later and realize she only seemed so far away and distant because she had fuck all to actually say.
4.5/10
what’s your favourite band?
I assume by band you mean <i<artist. I’d have to answer with <Thelonious Monk.
An obvious loaded question, asked in order to inspire derision towards me because I happen to pull no punches in a relatively polite forum. I'd note that I rarely, if ever, use personal attacks in my summations and am almost always on point with the music or critiques at hand, something that cannot be said about a few fellow posters.
“I’d note that I rarely, if ever, use personal attacks in my summations and am almost always on point with the music or critiques at hand, something that cannot be said about a few fellow posters.”
and yep, the question was nearly as loaded as its response
Actually, it was asked in the vain hope that you shed your egotism, and not answer it.
LOL @ ‘bespeckled’
Hey, man, calm down, some of us have to put up with being polka-dotted. Stop making society hate us more.
Camera Obscura on quaaludes is a hamfisted way to put it, but that still sounds pretty great tbh.
You’re probably right, it would have been easier to just write dull.
a lovely song by two lovely ladies.
The rest of the album is considerably better than this track, IMO. (“Your Fool” in particular is pretty great, I think — and I actually was in a fight once, in fourth form. *cough*)
Totally agree w/ Petra about the effortlessness of this record: “Circles,” as derivative as it is, seems to hone in on that hazy late-’90s Matador sound. Wish I’d actually bothered to go to their last show a little while back!
I got no problem with derivative, so long as it’s derived from something good. Derivative is underrated.
Circles
want to hear Tim ‘I love twee’ Gentles’ opinion on this.
I don’t really understand this comment. Are you someone I know?
Anyway, I’ve always liked the Gladeyes and this song is no exception. I love how clear the bass and drums are and how nicely they contrast to the lovely chimey guitar stuff that they do so well. It seems to lack some of the emotional catharsis that made the last album so great though, the lyrics err just a little on the side of the boring. I’m trying to remember what song the guitar line before the chorus reminds me of – is it a Yo La Tengo song? Maybe the 3ds? Oh right, Galaxie 500. I would never dislike a band that sounds like Galaxie 500.
7/10
I’d pay $10 to take my girl to see this band. Maybe $20 if I really liked her.
thrilled to see petra jane on the panel, possibly the smartest woman in the country
“I’d rather hear love songs about the dude or lady you meet at a WINZ-getting-back-into-the-work-force-meeting set to a jangle-y guitar and lazy snare. Something darker.”
Definitely
I reckon songs about stalking your classmate crushes and how the groceries are really expensive this week, and ‘if we’re going to do something, we’ve got to do it on the cheap’ are pretty close to the creepy/mundane request above. Gladeyes lyrics have always seemed to dwell on subjects other pop songs are either oblivious to or willfully ignore because they’re not glamourous enough. And Hugh, you missed out. Last show was spectacular.
Sounds like a Taylor Swift record.
nuthun wrong with a Taylor Swift record, philistine.
My thirteen year old niece totally agrees.
clearly her playlist > yours
It’s not that the Gladeyes are bad, they seem really good. I guess it’s kind of unfair because trashy pop music gets judged on a different scale to music that’s aspiring to something more interesting, like this band. I mean, maybe it is unfair to have radically high literary expectations of a band just because you think they seem potentially capable of reaching those heights. I would never criticize Brooke Fraser for not being authentic enough, because what would be the point of even mentioning it?
Maryann, that’s a really good point and one debate that would be worth having.
I hope Grant never gets asked to join the GSGBSB panel and just keeps submitting his own reviews as comments so he too, perhaps, one day, can finally be as loathed as Simon Sweetman.
I hope Mark E.Smith gets asked to join the panel – would be great to have someone well known on.
In these dark corridors of incestuous and sycophantic groveling, I’d wear your hatred as a badge of honor.
grant: freedom fighter for the good of meaningless online discussion
Shit Grant, you’ve got a real axe to grind. I’m glad I’m not your girlfriend…… lol. You’re probably one of those dudes who goes around hating everything and not actually doing anything but boring everyone by letting them know what a genius you are.
I thought we were critiquing the song above, not one another. But yes, you’ve totally got my number Peanuts. I mean, I could be happily married and working in media, with a broad and eclectic group of things I love and champion on a daily basis. But I’m sure that is just a silly complication, to ever let reality get in the way of your assessment of me via a few internet forum posts.
P.S I love the Gladeyes!!
but I’m right about the genius part aye?!
My posts may get belligerent but they are never personal. So why are you giving me flak? Because I’m giving opinions that differ to your own? If that is the case then I concur with your original comment, thank god that I’m not your boyfriend.
sup grant
Chelsea, he’s married. God!
No one seems to have picked the unbearable lightness of being of some of these songs.
As a clue Carols and Christmas is about thinking of loss of a loved one at Christmas.Perhaps if your best friend and brother had died you might get it – but I hope not!