Gloss Drop is the second studio album by American experimental rock band Battles, released on Warp Records in June 2011.
Most of the album is instrumental, but vocals are provided by various guests performers, including electronic musician Gary Numan and Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino.
"Ice Cream" was the first single to be released from the album on 23  2011 (2011--), in both digital and 12" vinyl formats. The vinyl was limited to 3000 copies, and was released in three different "flavors," with "strawberry" (pink), "vanilla" (cream), and "chocolate" (brown) colored records. Barcelona-based directorial collective CANADA produced a video for the single. It includes the B-side "Black Sundome" and an instrumental version of "Ice Cream". The second single released was for "My Machines", featuring Gary Numan, which came in digital and vinyl formats with an instrumental version of the song and an album outtake, "A.M. Gestalt".
From February to April 2012, a series of four 12" vinyl EPs were issued, titled "Dross Glop" (a spoonerism of the title) 1 through 4, featuring remixes of all the songs on "Gloss Drop" by various artists. A compilation featuring the 11 remixes (plus one not included, "Sundome") was released on 16 April 2012.
Artwork.
The album cover is a photo of a sculpture constructed out of Great Stuff, a commercial foam insulator, by guitarist Dave Konopka. Dave: "The artwork is a sculpture that I did, I'm even reluctant to say sculpture... it's a sculpture that I made during the making of the album and essentially it's a big pink blob, of nothing. I wanted to represent a solid document that would be the album, that is a controlled atmosphere and have something that is completely organic that you can't even control the way things are going to happen, and at the end of the day it was more evident that we couldn't control anything other than the way things were going to happen when it came to making this album. So the actual artwork was just this blob... I made this controlled square one that didn't look as good but the organic blob that just fell into place and then congealed and solidified, was the total proper way for us to go for the album."
Writing process.
The writing for "Gloss Drop" was completed from 2010 to 2011. Midway through the process, Tyondai Braxton left the band to pursue his solo career. The band then carried on as a trio and re-wrote the entire album within four months. Drummer John Stanier told BBC Radio: "We were working on this record but nobody was happy with it. Even he [Braxton] wasn't happy with it, it just sounded terrible, it was really bad. Once he left, after the initial shock of 'what are we going to do', all of a sudden it’s like wait, no, now this song sounds awesome because there aren’t these ridiculous, terrible vocals on it now, to be honest."
Reception.
"Gloss Drop" received generally positive reviews from most music critics upon its release. At AnyDecentMusic?, which collates reviews of contemporary music albums, the album received an average score of 7.4 (based on 23 reviews) rated highest by "Spin" and "Clash" magazines. Metacritic, another aggregation website, gave it a score of 79 out of 100, indicating 'generally favourable reviews', based on 37 professional reviews.
According to AllMusic, the tracks with guest singers "are "Gloss Drop"s immediate standouts", due to the trio's way of picking singers "that reflect a particular aspect of their sound that they've chosen to express". ""Gloss Drop" may be more accomplished than the band's debut; even if it's not quite as much of a powerhouse as "Mirrored" was, it shows that the trio version of Battles is lean, creative, and surprisingly adaptable", reviewer Heather Phares concludes.
Mark Shukla of "The Skinny", remarking on how adroitly the band overcame the departure of their former vocalist Tyondai Braxton, argued that "...above and beyond its considerable technical accomplishment, it's "Gloss Drop"'s sense of playful optimism that augurs most auspiciously for this band's future." BBC Music, on the other hand, considers the loss of Braxton too heavy a blow for the band, citing "Ice Cream" as the one that "really shines". "Spin" called it "a triumphant moment, an experimental outburst both ingenious and accessible". "Clash" said it was 'sublime', 'startling', 'visually emotive' and 'vividly audacious'.
Amongst the more critical reviews, Dorain Lynsky from "The Guardian" stated that "there are dry, impenetrable patches, making Gloss Drop an album that ultimately impresses more than it charms." In a similar sentiment, Sam Walby from "Drowned in Sound" wrote that "There is no question that this is a technically adept, well realised and urgent recording, but what seems to be a lacking is the je ne sais quoi that made Mirrored such a colossal debut album." At BBC Music, Mike Diver opined that "Everything on "Gloss Drop" is excellently performed – the players are seasoned professionals, and with Battles a going concern since 2002 there was never going to be any sloppiness on show. However, whether this set represents a significant step onwards from "Mirrored" is questionable. When tracks remain instrumental, attentions can wander, and arguably there’s nothing here with the immediacy of the vocal-free "Tras" single of 2004. "White Electric" should raise many a pulse, and opener "Africastle" does everything the fair-weather Battles fan wants from them: it’s technically assured, tremendously structured, and you can dance to it. But the basic formulas remain much as they were almost a whole decade ago."
References.
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