ABOUT FLASHBULB FIRES:
Known for their distinctive brand of emotionally rich American indie-rock, Flashbulb Fires has a genuine conviction to push the boundaries of popular music. The Denver quartet’s knack for combining dynamic song structures with beautifully magnetic arrangements is instantly recognizable, while their live show is immediately captivating, blending polished artistry and raw electricity. With an energy akin to the Arcade Fire and lyrical sketches reminiscent of Pedro the Lion and The National, Flashbulb Fires’ music is both evocative and meticulously crafted.
GLORY:
In the age of the thin and disjointed digital single, Flashbulb Fires’ debut LP, Glory, is a cohesive artistic statement and an undeniable return to the album as an art form. In the winter of 2008, Flashbulb Fires took up residence in a modest house-turned-studio and began feverishly writing material, recording, and scoring parts for the album’s bold instrumentation. Interrupted only by a national tour, the enigmatic band emerged a year later with a record that was, without a doubt, a complete album in every sense of the word.
Unquestionably stirring and impassioned, Glory abounds with lush orchestrations and powerful performances. From breathtaking horn arrangements to intimate acoustic guitars and inspired vocal harmonies, the album inhabits a deliberately divided and overwrought mood from start to finish. The brooding lyrical narratives, facilitated in large part by singer Patrick McGuire’s conflicted religious past and suburban-American upbringing, only further the album’s overall mood. After a childhood spent navigating through an unfulfilling revolving door of religions, McGuire eventually broke from his splintered youth and began to examine his spiritual struggle and suburban fatigue. Using images wrested from the sentiments of a bleeding generation, Glory relentlessly aches and trembles but is ultimately rooted in hope. It is in this hope that the album’s narrators are redeemed, at once detached and triumphant, while observing a society coated by a gauzy ignorance.
Glory stands as a modern American album from a modern American band – complex and self-assured. Its haunting themes and dramatic sonic framework strike a compelling balance between the immediately accessible and the subtly profound.
PRESS QUOTES:
".one of the best indie-rock albums of the year." - Des Moines City View
"All it should take is a little exposure and you can say, "I saw Flashbulb Fires when ." - Gary Hizer, Urban Tulsa Weekly
“Emotional and engulfing, Glory is a wall-of-sound song cycle." – Mario Tarradell, Dallas Morning News
"When McGuire sings lead…he is the perfect mix of tenacity and naivet�." - Tansy Maude Peregrine, The Huffington Post
"[Glory] is a near-immaculate pop-effort in the style of Phantom Planet, Grizzly Bear and maybe even a little early Radiohead." – Cory Kibler, Star City Blog
"Glory's harmonies are undauntedly layered with richly orchestrated horns that could come straight from the heavens and vocal harmonies sweet enough to be sung in any choir." – Dave Herrera, Denver Westword
"Glory will make you run until you run out of breath.” – David Kurtz, Bocumast.com
“[Glory] boasts am impressive array of sounds and textures." – Darryl Smyers, Dallas Observer
“While the music is stirring in its own right, that emotional place is the direct result of lead singer Patrick McGuire’s impassioned, often tortured, lyrical narratives." – Joshua Boydston, Oklahoma Gazette
"It is a testament to the band’s creativity that they can be as eccentric as they are without sounding the same song after song." - PresentMagazine.com
“[Patrick McGuire] bleeds his conflicted spirituality into the sidewalk cracks of suburban drudgery, a style lifelike and poetic. Results are modern and American, self-aware and self-assured.” – Jarrett Fontaine, The Reader
"Vocalist Patrick McGuire has a comfortable timbre that gives his singing an earnestness without ever tipping into twee excess, and his lyrics are vibrant throughout …” - OneTrackMind.com
“[Glory] is a massive arrangement with countless layers — a real score, rather than a collection of tracks.” – Brian F Johnson, Marquee Magazine
