A mature offering from Philadelphia's Gladie, their sophomore album proves that they're in control of their sound. Hal Hewlett tells all.
It’s sort of strange to talk about music as something that can be “mature”. So, I suppose a tour of what that means is helpful. Music can sound assured, confident, acknowledging of (though not deferential to) its uncertainties or flaws. An album can sound like it has been through some shit. Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out is one of those albums. It is Philadelphia band Gladie’s sophomore full-length release, following up 2020’s Safe Sins, although Gladie themselves are an experienced act: vocalist Augusta Koch headed punk band Cayetana for almost a decade before they split up in 2019. Gladie are a band that know what they’re about, and Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out is a brilliant rediscovery of the band’s stride after a tumultuous new beginning.
Gladie’s previous album, Safe Sins, was a rather spacey record. Tracks like Even at Your Easel and Choose have clear hallmarks of synthesisers, drum machines, and an overall more ambient and drifting sound. It was also recorded before Gladie had found a full lineup, which is why Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out feels like a coming together of the band’s members each strongly playing off each other together. On almost every track here there’s music under the music. The band are never content to let Koch’s vocals carry inspiring instrumentals, there’s always a carefully crafted guitar tone, a change-up in the drums, a frenetic bass part, that gives the tracks just so, so much more depth. It’s so fun to listen to, so exciting, so animated. The album’s lead single, Born Yesterday, is a great example; under some personal lyrics about Koch’s struggle with sobriety, there’s a really brilliant song to back it up. Mud gives me the same feeling, like how I feel when listening to Diet Cig songs, the vulnerability of the track is still there in full, but the effect of the music and the sheer energy of the vocal performance is so arresting that you can’t help but belt out the lyrics anyway.
Hit the Ground Running is a similar show of versatility from Gladie; the chilled-out and muted parts in the beginning of the track as well as some sweet string bends on a very soft and well mixed guitar part give the song a sort of twee feel, accented by Koch’s great, confident vocal performance. The rock instrumentals taking a bit of a back seat on this track really opens up the mix for the brass parts to come in, a dynamic which is executed very well; they feel like part of the mix rather than simply being placed on top, which is a trap that a few modern rock and emo records fall into when incorporating these kinds of instrumentals. Granted, it’s not like Gladie have left a more ethereal style behind, it’s just another part of the band’s repertoire. Koch’s very clear vocals on the track Soda melding back into the fuzz of the song as the instrumentals fade in and out is a highlight of the record, coming together for a track that feels absolutely assured.
"Granted, it’s not like Gladie have left a more ethereal style behind, it’s just another part of the band’s repertoire."
And certainly, assuredness is the key thing that Gladie have going for them. Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out is the first album that Koch has written sober, and the overwhelming feelings of getting to grips with that is one of the key lyrical themes. Referring to Born Yesterday, Koch said the song, “was like a little letter to myself of being like, ‘You can get through this.’”. The whole album is about the reality of loss and finding newfound strength and confidence within that - the last two years have been ones of massive change for both the world and for Koch personally, and that theme is palpable in the lyrics and music. In Heaven, Someday, constancy is reassured even in times of uncertainty - “When you’re running on fumes / absorbing bad news / I’ll be here with the lights on”. This track, and Fixer make up an absolutely brilliant diptych on the back end of the record, coming at the theme of uncertainty from either end, with questions and reassurances, provided through both the vocals of Koch on Heaven and her bandmate and fiancée Matt Schimelfenig, who picks up the vocals on Fixer and various other spots on the record. He does a very good job - the interlocking layered vocals and sparkling piano at the climax of Fixer are certainly a highlight of the record.
These moments of vulnerability provide a strong foundation for the moments of joy and up-tempo triumph found on songs like Smoking and Mud, the album’s climactic highlights. It is telling, though, that after moments like this, the band chooses to transition softly into Something Fragile, which closes out the album with synthetic keys and somber strings, finishing on a question - “Am I something fragile, or something strong?”. Even a decade after Koch’s beginnings as a musician, she is still unafraid to be uncertain, and turn that unabashedness into great, touching music. Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out is a moment of confident, mature, indie rock skill from Gladie, an unexpected stunner not to be missed by any alternative fans, especially those who enjoy the Philadelphia scene. At the end of the day, the cover tells you everything - bright, focused, high-quality, moving confidently forward, looking wistfully back, and doing it all with a smile.
Hal Hewlett
Edited by Ewan Samms
In article images courtesy of Gladie on Instagram. In article videos courtesy of Gladie on YouTube.
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