Review Summary: An album that will help you get lost in circular thought.
Glocca Morra remains one of the more mysterious and unique bands that I’ve come to love in my experience of loving music. They’ve released a plethora of albums; all of which fit under the “indie/punk” umbrella, but retain vastly different qualities from each other. With their humble beginnings in Miami, they put out a couple of EP’s and a full-length (Working Bones). Some time later, they relocated to Philadelphia in order to be closer to their desired scene. They continued to record music, eventually releasing their most well known work, “Just Married”, in 2012. At that point, the three-piece band (fronted by Zack Schwartz) picked up Snowing’s Nate Dionne, further solidifying the band’s association with the twinkly emo revival.
2009’s “The Working Bones, A Health Decline” is Glocca Morra’s first full-length album. It is similar to Just Married in that it does feature some of the same twinkly guitar elements. However, it is far removed from Just Married in terms of accessibility, vocals, and mixture of different genres. The average Working Bones song is a lot longer in length. One song off of WB is over eight minutes, which is long for Glocca Morra/any emo band. Despite the length of the songs, the album feels more like one long movement. Each track transitions perfectly into the next. A perfect example of this is the transition between Ego Death and Caution Clouds/Sticky Fingers.
Lyrically, Glocca Morra are at their most esoteric and inaccessible. It seems as if Zack chose words based on their sound and syllable compatibility rather than their meaning, which reminds me of Mike Patton’s lyrical process in bands like Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. When reading the lyrics, it sounds a lot like rambling. But in the music, it works very well. Zack delivers the lyrics in a number of ways. Punk-like screaming and soft, almost ghostly crooning are both popular aesthetics on this album. Reverby background vocals and harmonization serve to create a lot of mood and space as well.
While Just Married featured songs with correlating themes, catchy sensibilities, and definitive genre, Working Bones is not nearly as secure in theme. Flecks of folk, punk, emo, garage rock, and pop are littered throughout the 37 minute album. It almost sounds like they couldn’t decide which style to choose, which works for them. The synth-like instrumentation, occasional acoustic guitar, hand claps, and their full band sound all blend together nicely to mold a unique and pleasant sound.
The characteristics of Working Bones are among the most intriguing and perplexing of Glocca Morra’s music. It is possibly for these reasons that the band doesn’t play any song off of this album live. They seem to have a habit of disowning their previous albums, and this was the fate of Working Bones, unfortunately. Live or not, it remains an ominous, strange, and beautiful album. Is it better than Just Married? Well, it’s completely different, so competing the two remains pointless. It’s a stand-alone, hard to grasp record that can’t be compared to much. And for this reason among many others, it is a great album.
8.5/10
Fav Tracks: Fake Teeth, Starvation Limits/Tokyo Show
