Album Review: Glitterer - Rationale

Glitterer

Rationale 

**and1/2 out of *****

For Glitterer's third album the group evolved from just main man Ned Russin and his laptop to a full fledged band as the Washington DC based outfit release Rationale, a collection of very brief, emo laced, rockers.  

Russin spent his early days in Title Fight, and brings some of that groups evolving sound here on bass and vocals as his new bandmates help out with Nicole Dao - keyboard Jonas Farah - drums Connor Morin - guitar adding to the sound. 

Before diving into the individual songs a caveat must be stated. Perhaps it is just the old man listening/reviewing, but these tracks all seem to just be getting moving before they cut out; emo for an ADHD generation. There is some real interesting stuff here but when diving into each of the songs, almost all of them seem to be done before truly latching on, or flourishing. It is if Russin has a basic idea, thinks it is enough and moves on, thankfully for him those original ideas are pretty catchy so this works on Rationale, but overall personal tastes would just like more song. 

  

Layers of sounds, synths, acoustic/electric strums kick things off with the straight ahead rock sound of "I Want To Be Invisible" which sets the tone for the full album as the yearning vocals speak to pain and guitars rock. The mix of poppy punk and dour vocals/sounds work with "The Same Ordinary" while synths and a cool hard rock groove pump up the first single "Plastic".

Synths and electro keys lead to a soft, weird intro on "Can't Feel Anything" while the drums highlight both the uber quick "Big Winner" and "Certainty" that shoots for big and soaring with a warbling guitar solo. The catchy "Recollection" uses a bright synth and guitar pairing while "No One" there bangs around with yearns with heartache and pain. The chugging "It's My Turn" juxtaposes nicely with "Just A Place" that is the most wandering/floating sounding effort here. 

The two tracks that close sum up Ratioanle and Glitterer as a band. "My Lonely Lighting" feels like it is building to a huge release and never goes anywhere as it just ends before climax while "Half Truth" feels like a Replacement's influenced winner before just adding on a minute of repetitive bass and synth to close for no reason. Russin likes to keep the songs brief and then wrap it up, here's to that.

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