Glasvegas

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• Robert Burns
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Pop music has a lot of ways to obscure or ameliorate lyrics that don’t quite rise to the level of poetry on the page. There’s melody, of course (try reading some New Order lyrics without Peter Hook’s basslines or Bernard Summers’ guitar to lead them and see how well they hold up), there’s the overall sound, and then there’s the singer’s voice, the way a delivery can make the prosaic sound profound. Glasvegas may not have Robert Burns-level lyrics going for them, but unless you’re so gauche as to read the lyric sheet whilst listening to their records, you’d never know it, thanks to the band’s simple but sweet melodies, their big fuzzy sound smartly indebted to fellow Scots the Jesus & Mary Chain, and frontman (and former footballer) James Allan’s enveloping, epically moping Scottish accent. He could sing the Glasgow phonebook and make it sound swoon-worthy. With Gliss.ERIC GRANDY
Sat., June 4, 8 p.m., 2011