FEWS - Glass City Album Review

By Jon Milton

There’s something deliciously gothy about ‘Glass City’, the third album from FEWS. The insistent guitar lines bathed in echo, the Steve Severin-like driving bass and the tribal drumming all combine devilishly to recall that unfairly maligned early 80’s movement.

Based in Sweden but comprised of Swedes, Americans and English, FEWS first emerged in 2015, but have been quiet for the last four years since their last album ‘Into Red’. Glass City was, by all accounts borne out of experimentation with producer Joakim Lindberg. Vocalist/Guitarist Fred Runquist says of the album:

‘‘Glass City’ is the rawest thing we’ve done so far. Unlike the previous album, we tried to make it as raw and alive as it is when playing live. We didn’t want to compromise with doing so many dubs and smoothen the rough edges. It’s a really exposing feeling, especially when its so close to the edge that you can almost feel it’s about to break’.   

There are shades of many of bands in their early stages on this record, early Bauhaus, The Cure, The Cult, Siouxsie, Echo and the Bunnymen and Gene Loves Jezebel. Tracks like Massolit, Adore, Get Out and In Head romp along at a glorious pace. Elsewhere Yoga Instructor, Soon and Strafe evoke the early shoegaze of Slowdive and Ride and there’s a hint of early 90’s grunge on Fled.     

And just Fred says, it is raw. Raw and incisive like it was their first album, not their third, and testament to a band that are at the top of their game.