Friday's Playlist: All The New Dudes

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This Friday’s Playlist checks the mirror, reapplies the glitter and asks an important question: who’s keeping glam rock alive now that David Bowie, T. Rex, Sweet, Slade and New York Dolls have long vacated the dressing room? Back in the early 70s, glam turned rock into a beautifully absurd spectacle: towering platform boots, riffs simple enough to shout back at the stage after two beers, enough hairspray to damage the ozone layer and just the right amount of gender panic to annoy boring people. Some artists leaned toward bubblegum stompers, others preferred sleazy hard rock, arty decadence or proto punk filth, but subtlety was rarely invited.

Turns out the genre didn’t vanish, it just wandered into strange places before finding a new generation of willing degenerates. Gyasi arrives dressed like he slept in Marc Bolan’s closet (or with Marc Bolan), Starbenders and Starcrawler bring the sleaze, Giuda revive working class stomp, while The Lemon Twigs and walt disco head toward theatrical art pop territory. Måneskin made glam palatable to mainstream radio, HMLTD sound like they were raised on Bowie records and beautifully questionable fashion choices, and The Scarlet Opera understand that restraint is for accountants. Somewhere, Marc Bolan is nodding approvingly...

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