Glass Pear Is Coming
06/30/2009
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(PR) Glass Pear, the quirky moniker for Welsh singer-songwriter Yestyn Griffiths, will release his debut album "Streets Of Love" on August 25 on WOL Records. Self-produced with cohorts Tom Welham and Tasha Baylis in a tiny north London flat, "Streets Of Love" is a collection of ten stellar songs that feature Yestyn's epic piano-clad melodies, soaring voice and existential lyrics. The first single "Last Day Of Your Life", mixed by Coldplay producer Danton Supple, was featured in Grey's Anatomy and 90210.
The younger brother of recording artist Jem, Yestyn started his career co-writing tracks for her acclaimed debut "Finally Woken" and follow-up "Down To Earth". In 2008 he sent a demo of Glass Pear songs to the then Music Director of KCRW 89.9 FM Los Angeles, Nic Harcourt, who became an early supporter. Others such as Alex Patsavas, the music supervisor for Gossip Girl, soon caught on to the buzz, predicting that Glass Pear "would have a big impact in 2009. [He writes] beautiful, melodic, well-crafted pop songs."
Echoing the influence of early Radiohead and Coldplay, "Last Day Of Your Life", "Listen To The Music" and "Come Alive" weave pretty guitar melodies into complex, modulating arrangements, climaxing in huge, sing-a-long choruses. "Violet Waters" deceptively opens with Keane-like piano before bursting into an exotic beat reminiscent of Bloc Party. Just as intriguing is the shuffling, Cure-inspired romp of album title track "Streets Of Love", where Yestyn's lyrical obsession with love and death finds its outlet: "People punch and people bruise on these streets of love/Where we live and die." In "Wild Place" and "My Ghost", Yestyn strips back his sound to naked acoustic and voice, reaching his most powerful emotional expression at the finale of the album's closing track.
Shot through with references to human mortality, the fragility of love and the search for transcendence, "Streets Of Love" is an emotionally uplifting and meaningful record that extends the tradition of great British guitar music.
www.myspace.com/glasspear
Track listing for Glass Pear's Streets Of Love:
1) Last Day Of Your Life
2) Vultures
3) Listen To The Music
4) Streets Of Love
5) Colours
6) Wild Place
7) Come Alive
8) This Is Not A Dream
9) Violet Waters
10) My Ghost
Live: Hotel Caf�, Los Angeles, Wed August 12, 8.30pm
Glass Pear will be touring the US in the Fall, further dates to be announced shortly.
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