‘Stranded Assets’ by My Glass World is the band’s seventh album and released this month. My Glass World is the invention of composer, singer, musician Jamie Telford, who has written and recorded alongside a range of artists from Paul Weller to Richard Strange and Sean Read who plays Sax and has worked with a wide range of talents including Edwyn Collins, Dexys Midnight Runners and Dave Gahan and the Soulsavers to name but a few. Lyrically, Jamie draws from politics, people, perseverance, and observations on the dark human experience in the cost of living crisis era. ‘Stranded Assets’ are investments that have lost value or are no longer profitable due to market dynamics, and the vicissitudes of a capricious world. In this age of globally changing political landscapes, foodbanks, and the rise of the algorithm, this is perhaps a timely record. There’s a real clarity of delivery, the words matter: “Politics and close control, are guaranteed to take your soul”…
The album opens with `Words` and I read that it referred to the fact that “We are surrounded by words and though we give them scant time we absorb them and are affected by them and adjust our behaviours sometimes subtly sometimes crucially”. The track has an almost harpsicord tone at the beginning and is a tranquil offering with lyrics shared with a sense of frustration and really signify the saying “words can cut deeper than a knife”, a metaphor that highlights the potential of words to cause significant emotional pain and damage. The number does end on a more optimistic slant recognising the advantage of positive words. We have an absorbing offering with `You Can Feel It Coming` which permeates a sense of unease and anticipation as to what`s on the horizon.
`Show Up` has a rhythmic rolling beat and some sweet intermittent saxophone waves and hues and appears to be a kind of put up or shut up scenario as to trying to understand what a partner requires from you. We enjoy a funky percussive tone with `Always Another Train` although the lyrical content is a touch melancholic and downbeat.
`You Can Get There` is a fairly contemplative and brooding atmospheric number which seems to be about succeeding if you`re willing to try and people being around to support if required. Piano keys and a rolling drumbeat lead us into `What Are We Left With Now` an introspective pensive consideration on a relationship that seems to have run it`s course and appears to be going through the motions as the passion has faded.
`Where Are You?` is a further reflective offering with an understated drum n bass feel where the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is mentioned which suggests that the language a person speaks shapes their perception and understanding of the world. So maybe it relates to two people or souls at a crossroads due to differing outlooks and interpretations. There`s a jazzy nigh on waltz like almost `Take Five` vibe to `Its Time` which is another consideration on a love that has run its course and although the embers are there you can’t go back in time but have to accept the inevitable.
`Faster` is what the title alludes to a fast paced funky soulful breezy composition. There`s a dreamy atmosphere to `Take Me Up` with it`s delightful hand beaten percussive tones and faraway saxophone colours, a song made for chilled lazy summery days. Strangely there are some synth like video computer game sound effects scattered throughout.
`A Pale Horse` is a funky arrangement and lyrically has a kind of forewarning about it. Indeed the pale horse, in the context of the Book of Revelation, is a powerful symbol of death and destruction. The final cut `Compassion For Animals` is a really odd one, a rolling musical under beat sets a platform that allows a discourse or stream of criticism from one companion to another, ending with a plea for an unconditional love of animals.
Contributions from Martyn Kane, Stephen Gilchrist, Jon Kensington, Jimi Scandal, Little Barrie, And Ruby Barker added to the overall ambience of `Stranded Assets`. The album is delightfully reflective, jazzy, funky, soulful, and dreamy with a vocal delivery that at times is quite succinct almost deadpan but at the same time full of emotion almost a contradiction of sorts. The release is one of those releases that you`ll gain more from each time you return to listen.
Rating 8.5/10
