The Glad Version

Whether or not writing a song called "89.3" is a great ploy for radio play, those Death Cab/Bright Eyes-loving guys in the Glad Version did just that for their third CD, "Make Islands." The lyrics have little to do with the station in question (I think it's about being in a band), but it's one of many cuts that should get played on any station with an active music blog and a cool British DJ. Those include the frantically poppy "Ambulance," the gorgeous and icy anthem "Cougars" and the big-chorus builder "Under the Pines." - Review

The opening moments of Make Islands find the Glad Version's lead singer Adam Svec in a shootout in the Old West. While a guitar wails in the background, both the protagonist and the female antagonist get shot, and the blood begins to flow. The rest of the album isn't nearly as blood-soaked, but it's packed with as much claustrophobia and uneasy despair. The Glad Version have evolved since their last offering, 2006's Lights Out North Star. That slippery, almost indescribable shift from "pretty good" to "pretty great" is evident just seconds into the new disc's opener, and the record only gets better from there. - Review

#15 - With a boyish, downbeat/uptempo indie-rock sound somewhere between Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes, this well-polished quartet would've sounded great on "The O.C." It still sounds pretty good on the station one of its songs is named after, "89.3." - Critics' Tally

Sometimes bands surprise you. Two albums into their career on the local scene I thought I had the Glad Version all figured out. I had the quartet pegged as a group of talented and well meaning young guys whose music played it a little too safe and teetered a little too close for comfort to mawkishly emo terrain for me to ever really get behind. Then I heard their forthcoming third album, Make Islands, and that perception was blown to pieces. It’s a truly great record, a focused and polished pop platter that expands the Glad Version sound way beyond anything they’ve done in the past, the kind of album that screams to be discovered far beyond the state of Minnesota. - Review by Rob Van Alstyne

The sound: Slick mid-tempo indie-pop sure to appeal to fans of Death Cab for Cutie. Why this could be the year: The band’s gently rocking tunes are hip enough to appeal to the college rock crowd but smooth enough to play on Cities 97. - Review

It is always nice to see the progression of a young band and especially when they really start to hit their stride. Minneapolis’ Glad Version is definitely one of those bands. Make Islands is the bands third album since 2004 and the refinement of their sound is very noticeable. Each track has a much more methodical approach to it with every harmony, beat, guitar lick and hush vocal planned down to the second, which for some bands would come off like stale bread but for The Glad Version it enables their true self to shine through track after track. - Review

Glad Version kicked butt Friday night, leading one audience member to lean into me and ask why they aren’t better known. Their latest release Make Islands is unquestionably their best to date, and since they keep on getting better with each release I wouldn’t count them out for world domination just yet. - Live Review