Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute

If you were to review the actual band, Glassjaw, you’d take into account individual talent, live performance, history, personality, and motivation. But writing a review for Worship and Tribute means disregarding those things, and reviewing this single effort. How “cool” the band is has nothing to do with the quality of the album, which is what most people fail to consider. Worship and Tribute is a solid album, full of original ideas, appropriate tangents, and lots of pizzazz, and could get labeled as a 5.0 by some. But every album has it’s share of flaws, and although I would call Worship and Tribute a must own, it’s still not a perfect CD. An album this good needs to be taken apart. The problem with nitpicking is it can make the record sound like a bad one, when you’re just highlighting the few things that “could” be wrong with it. Worship and Tribute is a stupendous rock record. It’s well-formulated, very honest, and contains the polish that Glassjaw deserved from their sophomore major label effort. The first track, “Tip Your Bartender”, is a table of contents of things to come: wild monotone vocals with “wah” guitar to fill the space shot right into a chorus that settles everything down. The changes and jerks in this album make it better for some and worse for others. Glassjaw is known for one key thing, the vocals. People either turn their nose up in understandable disgust, or cover their songs. If it’s one thing that separates this album from the last, it’s the odd and slippery noises put out by Daryl, which fit in some parts – while others sound like he’s actually trying to sound like himself. Even those that call Worship and Tribute album of the year can point out parts of the vocals that sound so funny, you can only memorize them until you forget how strange they are – then praise them. Glassjaw is honored as one of the pioneers of “Screamo”, but songs on this record could make me say they are actually “trying” to sound like Glassjaw – something which many local acts these days are being crucified for. There are slow songs and fast songs, but nothing nearly as raw as Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence, their previous album. That album came from the soul of a kid being shredded by love. Worship and Tribute comes from the soul of a kid that was shredded by love a while back. I was into the furious parts of their earlier efforts, and although the new disc is a good one, and some songs could make you cry, I’ve found the old CD in my player once again. Regardless of the quirks, it’s one of the best albums of the year for fans of the genre, and a great next step for Glassjaw. [www.glassjawband.com]