Welcome to the Boolin Tunes Staff Spotlight, a special segment on the site in which we dive deep into a classic or simply personally beloved album to shine a light on releases that we feel deserve a second glance.
Glassjaw toured in late 2017 with The Used, selling shirts with a new, mysterious phrase: Material Control. Though missing any clear context, fans wondered if it would be the album they’ve been waiting 15 years for, having not had a full length since 2002’s Worship & Tribute.
A few leaks later, including the artwork and tracklist, the band dropped Material Control without significant fanfare or promotion. Departing from the jazzier style of the Coloring Book EP from 2011, the album is a noisier, more dissonant affair:
I need you broken and pale
Bloody and scared
The material is surprisingly energetic, given the band members were nearly in their forties. However, the soundscape is desolate and crushing, or “post-apocalyptic and urgent” as described by guitarist Justin Beck. The guitar leads are aggressive and at the forefront, the rhythm section chaotic, and the vocals less flashy than previous releases. Tracks stand tall and then fall away into the next with smooth musical and thematic transitions.
Pretty hell
All is ravaged
I stay awake
Tell me it’s easy
Godless one sighing inside me
Evidently, balls-to-the-wall heaviness is not the end goal here, and a pair of instrumental tracks in “Bastille Day” and the title track help to establish calm. The album’s conclusion, however, places the final nail on the cross as it goes out in a cacophony of sound:
Hole in the wall
Get what you give
And take what you paid for
Ultimately, Glassjaw took a risk with this sound, especially as it strayed so far from what they did earlier in the decade. It’s almost impossible to compare to Coloring Book and the adjacent singles, and should instead be placed against the previous full lengths at the beginning of the millennium. Indeed, this version of Glassjaw is leaner, meaner, and has a lot more interesting things to say.
We hope that you join us next Sunday for another retrospective from our team.