At one point on his new single, “I Wanna Slam My Head Against the Wall,” 16-year-old Glaive swoons sweetly for serotonin. “I need you bad, you know it,” he sings in one of the track’s more traditional pop moments, complete with a shimmering acoustic guitar. It’s a good example of everything there is to like about Glaive, who started making music shortly before the pandemic started last year. He has a way with clear-eyed vulnerability. The song’s title, long and unwieldy as it is, couldn’t be a better description of the way things feel right now.
More specifically, Glaive singing the song’s titular chorus over the dreamy maximalist production that many now describe as “hyperpop” is exactly how it feels to be alive in 2021. “I Wanna Slam My Head Against the Wall” is sincere in the way some of the best emo songs of the aughts were. The final line of the chorus — “I watched my idols fall, I might just еnd it all” — sounds like something you’d swear you heard in a Cursive song. Glaive belongs to a generation coming of age in an era of political rage and alienation. Most of his music, and accompanying videos, were made during the pandemic. Like the emo bands of the early 2000s, it’s a cohort accustomed to the emotional effects of both national tragedy and political incompetence.
“I’m on the brink of insanity inside my own home,” Glaive raps in a warbled mumble. The sugary-sweet electronics of modern pop music — much of which comes thanks to the late pioneer of hyperpop, Sophie — are cranked to 11 here. The drums shake like a game controller, somehow visceral, digital, and tangible all in one. Glaive’s voice sounds mutated like a recording of music playing out of computer speakers. It’s all bookended by the kind of pleasant-sounding acoustic guitar plucking you might expect to hear at a Starbucks.
As such, “I Wanna Slam My head Against the Wall” manages to ease you into its universe, and it’s sure to be a crossover moment for Glaive and his hyperpop contemporaries. And rightfully so — though it’s music created by and listened to by young people, there’s a profound maturity present. Just being able to clearly articulate how you feel is more than most adults can do.
10cc drummer Paul Burgess has announced that he is leaving the band because the demands of touring have become too much for him.
The 75-year-old musician, who also spent time performing with Jethro Tull, Camel, Magna Carta, and The Icicle Works, has chosen to walk away from the legendary rock group after more than five decades.
He shared: “After so many wonderful years with 10cc, I must admit that the rigours of touring are no longer manageable for me as I get older, and I feel it’s time to let go of the long hours in airports and endless travel on buses.
“I’m not planning to stop playing altogether. I will still perform but at a pace that feels right, working alongside old friends and a new group of fellow musicians called The Guilty Men.”
Frontman Graham Gouldman confessed that it will feel unusual to perform without his “longest-running musical associate.”
He explained: “When Paul and I first joined forces in 10cc, we never could have imagined that we’d still be at it after 30 years, let alone 52.
“Paul has been my longest musical partner and it will feel different to turn around and see another drummer, but I completely understand why he no longer wants to sit on a plane for 14 hours or wake up in a new hotel every day for weeks at a time.”
Ben Stone, who has previously played with Mike and The Mechanics and Bonnie Tyler, will be taking over on drums.
Paul, who had several runs with 10cc after joining in 1973, performed his final show with the I’m Not In Love band in Alexandria, Virginia this past September.
The group is set to continue their And Another Bloody Greatest Hits Tour in the UK next year.
