Over a ten-year history My Glass World have been an outfit in constant flux. A fluid line-up has seen members come and go, while an open door policy has found many musicians drop in and out recording sessions. While some bands benefit from stability, My Glass World have been constantly rejuvenated by their fluidity, ensuring that the core of Jamie Telford and Sean Read have always produced arresting and interesting albums. Their latest, the aptly-titled Assorted Marvels, finds them delivering eleven genre-busting, sophisticated tracks that keep on revealing their delights, spin after spin.

It’s always exciting when a new My Glass World album drops, and that’s partly due to not knowing in which direction the band will veer. There’s a musical freedom that the band have that’s become the envy of most. When approaching a My Glass World album, the best rule of thumb is to always expect the unexpected, and Assorted Marvels immediately throws a curveball by opening with the quiet storm that it ‘For Your Love’. It begins by lapping at the shore before, almost imperceptibly, adding layers of sound and completely washing over the listener. If latter day Madness had taken an overdose of ‘ludes, then jammed with Heroes-era Bowie, then I imagine it’d sound a lot like the following ‘Citizen Of Nowhere’. With some sassy sax and sprightly samples it deftly defies easy categorisation and has a shapeshifting quality that’s always repositioning us.

My Glass World aren’t all high-mindedness and don’t bamboozle you for no reason, and sometimes their music doesn’t bear overanalysis, it’s best to just enjoy ‘We Are One’ for what it is; a great, great, great song. Having said that, ‘White Out’ was probably the most kooky single of 2023, yet even when they’re pushing the boundaries with unorthodox, unsettling sound effects, there’s a focus on melody which ensures it’ll haunt you long after it fades into the ether. It’s actually the emphasis on euphony that stitches the eclectic Assorted Marvels together, and it’s safe in the knowledge that whatever twist and turns My Glass World take, they’ll always be a hook waiting to reel you in.

While the band’s previous album Tree.Shadow.Piano was largely informed by Covid and the weight of various lockdowns, Assorted Marvels has a litheness that its predecessor lacked. Like a helium balloon floating in an azure sky ‘When You Coming Over’ gets carried on a breeze, and wends to an unknown destination. Yet, even when things get weighty, such as on ‘21st Century Girl’, there’s still a sense of freedom, that the band are unfettered and are bouncing to their own beat. This juxtaposition between the heavy and lithe, light and shade, doesn’t just end with the music but transfers to all aspects of the band’s modus operandi. Despite its title, ‘Genghis Khan’ is actually an ear-tickler and will soon haunt your memory bank, while closer ‘Everybody Here They Come’ is a soulful number that fractures good vibes in every direction, not unlike a musical lotus flower.

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, My Glass World’s latest album does indeed serve up a hefty helping of Assorted Marvels.

• Assorted Marvels is released on 19th January 2023.
• My Glass World Official Website

Track List:

1. For Your Love
2. Citizen Of Nowhere
3. We Are One
4. White Out
5. Before We Were Here
6. Here We Go
7. When You Coming Over
8. 21st Century Girl
9. Under The Sun
10. Genghis Khan
11. Everybody Here They Come