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Glasshouse

Party Day are all about emotions. Sometimes they whisper 'I love you', yet at other times they'll scream 'I hate you' - and occasionally they'll curl up, bury their faces, weep openly and admit their inner turmoil. The great thing about 'Glasshouse' is, simply, all this is here.

This is the return of versatility, as Party Day drift from a bittersweet six-string charge of energy to a melancholy sigh and back again. This music is . . . intense, certainly.

It's pop music, too, especially the dizzily infectious 'Firehorse' - and it's just about everything I want for the moment. That's how spectacular an LP 'Glasshouse' is. More soon, please.

Mr Spencer - SOUNDS 1985

LP Reviews

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"I liked to see you when you smile"

From the dour sardine sandwiches of New Model Army to the curdled milkshakes of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, "The North" has always offered a darker side to melancholia. but Party Day have hauled themselves up by their armpits, standing atop some crusty fortress to bellow their belligerent, gloomy broadcasts.

Thumping on like commando rabbits, through ‘Sovereign’, albeit a touch repetitive in tone, and ‘Passing Pain’ they are big and bold, like Fergie's enormous bottom. The head-in-hands malaise that so often stifles this style

of music  is cauterised by the shameless pretty "Laughter", a gentle wandering strum of acoustics and soothing vocals with a demented ending.

Proving that they've grasped more than an inspirational nettle, the recurrent throb finds their trousers igniting during the quite punctilious rawk of the title track, the urgent prodding of ‘Career’, which reminded me uncomfortably of early Killing Joke and the attractive, though slightly over-wrought black sheep, ‘Glorious Days’, which could have brought a lump to Mario Lanza's trousers.

Even the duffer ideas, like the numb rumblings of ‘Stay in My  Heart’ and the workmanlike ‘The Other Side’, make gentle stepping stones between the fires and treacherous swamplands they have to offer the cautious traveller.

I suppose I ought to make some ‘Invitation’ type one-liner now, but I really can't be bothered. The Art of smarties!

Mick Mercer - MELODY MAKER 12 July 1986

Recently unearthed - Glasshouse LP review from the New Wave & Post-Punk Reviews WordPress Dutch site (2018)