We recently got the chance to check out the new single “I Can Tell By The Cars” from Boston based band Looking Glass War

You can listen to “I Can Tell By The Cars” on Spotify Here and on Apple Music Here

Last month Looking Glass War announced their presence with their post punk/ glam debut single “Arrive”. Now the band shifts gears with “I Can Tell By The Cars” which, is more shoegaze/dream-pop.

There is this real sense of excitable energy surrounding Looking Glass War. It’s the kind of excitement that you feel at performance just as they are lifting the red curtain. Listening to “I Can Tell By The Cars, feels like a red curtain moment.

Together, each member – vocalist Goddamn Glenn, guitarist Pete Zeigler, Mancunian ex-pat bassist Mike Ackley, and drummer Tony Porter – are able to flex their adept musician muscle to offer a single that stands in stark contrast to their propulsive debut offering. If “Arrive!” kicked down the door to a residence and barged in with a calculated rage, “I Can Tell By The Cars” settles in and makes itself at home, telling stories around the fireplace.

“I think it shows a different side of us,” admits vocalist Goddamn Glenn. “When my wife first heard it, she said it’s going to be the ‘sad boy hit of the summer’ and that works for me. I hope she’s right [laughs].” Adds guitarist Pete Zeigler: “It goes deeper and builds. I love how the structure mirrors the tone of the narrator, with each verse getting shorter while the intensity continues to ramp. A slow burn to counter the face slap of ‘Arrive!’.”

Ackley says “I Can Tell By The Cars” started out as a purely shoegaze song, as Zeigler’s shimmery guitars set a mood before the track’s big, anthemic chorus crashes down. The two brought the bones of the song to Glenn and Porter, and it became the first track all four members played on together. Once Glenn’s lyrics and vocal melody began to take shape, the song grew into where it is today. It was produced by Brian Charles, with assistant engineer Adam Hand; recorded in Massachusetts at Mad Oak Studios in Allston and Rare Signals in Cambridge, MA; and mastered by Peter Linnane.

“There’s a few things going on in this one, but I’ll start by explaining the title,” notes Glenn. “‘I Can Tell By The Cars’ is a cynical summation of the state of the world as interpreted by surveying all the mean-spirited and toxic sentiments captured in bumper stickers attached to cars I see on the highway. Without getting overtly political, you can tell by some of the cars out there that the specter of extremism, bigotry and political violence is still very much alive and well. ‘We are in for a long slog, man…’ as the song goes.”

Glenn continues: “The other thing happening is very much an earnest effort to focus on love in a world that feels like it’s driving right off a cliff. Ultimately, the persona in the song isn’t sure whether to keep fighting the good fight or to give up entirely. And that last bit of existential indecision is reflected in one of the lyrics I am personally most proud of, which is, ‘I’m just that Sisyphus, pushing up narcissuses.’”

We were literally hanging on every word , every note wondering where the song was going to go .”I Can Tell By The Cars “from Looking Glass War is truly a magical listening experience. We can’t wait for what is next but for now , we are going to put on “I Can Tell By The Cars” and go for a long drive .