“separateness” by glass age, Wednesday, December 4, 2024


In 2015, Abandon Kansas was making a comeback by signing with Emery’s BadChristian Music. The new label allowed the band to express a less-filtered offering of songs. Their third record, alligator, explored themes of doubt, mental health, and addiction. After releasing the album in May, the band hit the road supporting other bands on tour, but in June, Jeremy Spring announced on Facebook that Abandon Kansas would be going on an indefinite hiatus. Spring’s since-deleted post alluded to the mental health issues he was struggling with as well as the need to be close to family. The band reunited to play a few shows; however, Spring and the band members put their efforts into other projects. In 2019, Abandon Kansas rebranded as Glass Age and released Bloom, a three-song EP, taking the band in a different direction. 


I MIGHT BE AFRAID OF JOY. Abandon Kansas mostly toured in the Christian Rock scene from their formation until their 2015 hiatus. While they enjoyed some Christian radio success and even headlined tours, Abandon Kansas was always more of a supporting act for bigger Christian Rock bands. Glass Age seems to have distanced themselves from the genre, playing more shows in their home state of Kansas rather than embarking on national tours. After releasing Bloom in 2019, Glass Age started working on their debut LP with producer J. Hall in Nashville. According to their Instagram page, Glass Age said that their first record was finished in 2022; however, they have only released three singles as of 2024. After releasing “(a)merican [i]dle” last September, the band hasn’t posted anything on their Instagram account. Glass Age’s music sounds like a more mature Abandon Kansas with maybe a more solid band and more nuanced lyrics. Hearing the full album would be nice, but the lack of promotion for this band is worrying. 


YOU CAN KEEP ME AT AN ARM’S LENGTH, HONEY. The second Glass Age released leading up to their yet-to-be-released full album was “separateness.” The song explores the theme of emotional distance. The song captures the tension between two poles: the desire for connection and the fear of vulnerability. The repetition of "in separateness" underscores how the speaker feels stuck in this cycle, unable to fully break through emotional barriers. Two parties must decide to make a connection. Abandon Kansas dealt with this theme on their debut album, You Build a Wall, I’ll Build a Ladder. The title represents two songs about a broken relationship. The speaker in Glass Age’s “separateness” is not as determined in “I’ll Build a Ladder.” Rather, staying in separateness is a solution until things are resolved. Furthermore, the speaker in “separateness” goes through changes in perspective, starting at being  “afraid of joy” but then “not [being] afraid of heartache” as is to be expected when separateness prevails. Jeremy Spring hasn’t talked about this song, and the band’s limited social media can only make speculate what this song could be about. But with a country divided politically and religiously, separateness has become how many of us cope. Facts and appeals to emotions often don’t work on loved ones, so we have to learn to embrace the separateness. Building a ladder is only matched with a higher wall. Maybe we should be ready to reconcile, but prepared for nothing to happen, to keep loved ones at arm's length away.







 

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