Album Review: UV-TV – Glass

Somewhere in the middle of Florida is UV-TV, they write melancholy pop songs that are a mass of jagged and abrasive edges that combine strong hooks with infectious chainsaw guitar riffs, a sound that has drawn comparisons to Black Tambourine, The Jesus And Mary Chain and The Shop Assistants, but for me there’s also a hefty dose of two of my home town’s, Manchester UK, favourite sons woven into their DNA. Glass was self-recorded over a hectic two days in a retired Gainesville train station, and it was released via Deranged Records on the 10th March.

From the opening hyperactive blast of Wasting Away, the finest minute of buzzsaw guitars you’ll hear this year, I had a good feeling about this album, and my gut feeling about this release was right on all eleven counts. The first six tracks are all sparkling amphetamine laced punk rock that should have you bouncing round the room, it’s only as you get deeper into the album’s latter stages that they branch out and their other influences become apparent. Take It All has a distinctly post punk feel to it, whilst Severed Hand and the title track bring a darker element to Glass. The penultimate track, FEAR, channels the authentic feel and sound of the first wave of UK punk bands, whilst the epic Dissolve closes things in a hectic squall of feedback and noise that builds to a crescendo that is a fitting end to what for me is undoubtedly going to be one of my favourite albums of 2017.