Adelaide quintet Glass Tides have released a new single today! “Crawling” arrives along with a music video and has been announced as the first taste of the band’s upcoming full length album. In Between is planned for release on 17th January 2020 and is the first album for the collective of Paul Bakker, George Solomon, Jack Chambers, Oscar Lang, and Mikey Hounslow.
Though I have a vague recollection of seeing Glass Tides’ 2017 single “Forever” on the Dreambound YouTube channel, I honestly haven’t spent much time getting to know the band and their sound before now. Given that a good proportion of the band’s songs on Spotify are covers, it’s great to see that they’re again putting their creative energies into releasing music of their own!
“Crawling” is a sombre piece of music with thought-provoking lyrics and palpable emotion. Vulnerable vocals explore ideas of what’s to come when one’s internal struggle bleeds into affecting their relationship. And beyond the relationship itself, “Crawling” refers to the concept of leaning on old, potentially destructive habits.
The verses are contemplative and vulnerable, with a hint of defeat. It’s at the choruses where the fire is lit and more driven yearning pushes like a need for help and fear of what’s to come. All of this is reflected sonically, with open/vulnerable vocals the focus of the verses, where threads of thought are followed. The heavier instrumentation and intertwined layers of the chorus add to the tension of fear. An after-chorus wafting vocal and open instrumental moment ties into the idea that the “old ways” are likely numbing and self-medicating with drugs or alcohol. I love the possibility that sits in the bridge, and the shift in the drums that occurs after it.
The music video created by Crystal Arrow Films ties into the internal wrestling match and shows ‘solutions’ that are being crawled toward. The floral pieces that appear behind the difficulty (shown in dark red) have me feel like hope/change is possible. It’s gentle beauty positioned beside blood red difficulty, which makes for really impactful imagery. The same combination of flowers and red is also expressed in the artwork.
In summary? Glass Tides are clearly just fine at creating original songs, and it’ll be great to hear more of their flavour of sound as In Between draws closer! Until then, watch “Crawling” via Dreambound on YouTube below.
