Glove - Boom Nights

Glove may be one of the giants of contemporary music—certainly of the current era, with the oversaturation of hot girl indie pout songs and lyricism built on its potential for virility. On paper, the rubric that defines the Tampa-born band could easily imply an exhaustion of obvious musical tropes: a lack of classical training, reinterpretations of nostalgic tones, and a goth-adjacent aesthetic. But Glove proves there is hope for what was thought to be a drained musical vocabulary, with tracks that feel both dystopic and euphoric, and indisputably danceable. (That is a lot of big words…definitely not me writing this one)
Half of Glove had barely touched an instrument before joining the band. But that was exactly what its founding member and architect Rod Wendt wanted. They pulled bassist Justin Burns into the project when his solo act opened for one of their shows. The punk learn-as-we-go mentality that prioritizes synchronicity in vision over technical experience has provided a foundation of innovation for Glove, whose sound feels distinctive next to its peers, with the ethos of Brian Eno and beat sensibility of the B-52s. Perhaps that’s why the band has landed opening gigs on tour with sonic legends like Jack White and A Place to Bury Strangers, and slots at festivals like Lollapalooza and Levitation before even releasing its first album, Boom Nights. It’s easy for a synth-heavy band to ride on the haunting allure of overlaying sound and produce a listenable album of near-non-differentiable tracks. Boom Nights is an execution of the opposite approach, its sound bouncing from thumping broody songs to jittery experiments in diffused shout tracks.