Glass Pear - 'Glass Pear'

Glass Pear - Welsh indie singer/songwriter Yestyn Griffiths returns with a new self-titled full-length, the follow up to his 2010 EP Sweet America and 2009 full length debut Streets of Love...numerous Greys Anatomy-styled TV placements -- and heart-on-sleeve lyricism -- have solidified his "sensitive dude" appeal...Trivia Bit: Griffiths is also the brother of platinum-selling alt/pop-stress Jem // Release: Glass Pear (December 5 U.K.) // Sounds like: what we've described before as "calmly studied folk/pop, smoothing any rough edges or troubling intensity with a soothing lyrical disposition and velvety production" remains pretty much intact on this new collection...where America was a more stripped and simple affair these new songs are painted with bolder colors and broader brush strokes...there's a reason Griffiths uses "Beach Boys" as a tag on his Soundcloud page -- we haven't heard quite so many effortlessly soaring falsettos in quite a while...

Quote: "I have a belief that a song is really good if it still sounds beautiful when its stripped back to just voice and one primary instrument. Once you have a song like that, of course you can produce it in many different styles." // What we like: the Coldplay-ish splendor of "Oxygen"...the evolution of opener "One Day Soon" from mellow acoustic ballad to rhythmic up-tempo number indicates that we're in for something a bit different this time around...the piano-driven kick of "Dizzy" is, well, dizzying in its ear-catching effervescence...what Griffiths occasionally lacks in lyrical depth (see: "Dizzy") is usually offset by his easy way around a memorable melody...

Glass Pear - "One Day Soon" (from Glass Pear)

Glass Pear - "Oxygen" (from Glass Pear)

Stream the full Glass Pear album (and buy) here...