Can you create perfect pop? Well, since in reality there’s no such thing as 100% perfect, the same goes for pop. But still, an artist can try to get as close as possible to that goal as is possible, depending on their capabilities and inventiveness. To some it seems the trick is to get as close to the taste of the widest possible audience as you can and in that guessing game the released results show where you stand.
When it turns out that certain songwriting and performing concepts work, the safest approach further on is to use them as some sort of a formula to keep achieving the same proven result. Of course, you can keep on trying to come up with something new and stretch the boundaries, but that too is a hit and miss process, and many record companies, particularly the big ones, may not be so favorable to such a process.
Now, that brings us to Sam R., better known as Glassio, and his third album The Imposter. So far, Glassio has been doing something right, as he has been not only getting praise from music critics, but has amassed some hefty 25 million streams of his previously released music.
So, where does Glassio’s success reside? Well, it seems not on solely sticking to proven pop formulas, but by employing a more delicate approach of mixing and matching elements of different pop and rock sub-genres compiled on something you could call an electro base.
Dissecting the 13 tracks of The Imposter, you can pick up not just electro-pop, but shoegaze (its more current incarnation), psych pop, folk and plenty else. Such mix and match combinations can be tricky and rely both on the artist’s inventiveness as well as an extensive knowledge and feel of and for those elements. Judging by the songs here, Glassio has both in abundance, as the music flows quite seamlessly, as if these sometimes disparate elements were meant to be matched in a way he combines them here.
At the same time, Glassio tries to overcome one of the vulnerabilities of pop, – the often vapid lyrical content. However, he’s not overcomplicating his lyrics at any point here.
With pop-oriented albums as such there is always a pertinent question – is it a coherent album or is it just a collection of possible hit singles? Here, Glassio resolves that problem too by presenting this set of songs as a movement from personal chaos to self-realization. Starting with “Join the Club” and ending with “Take a Look at the Flowers” Glassio comes up with an integrated pop album that not only has substantive content but works both as an album and separate songs at the same time.
