Western jaguar - glacia

Western Jaguar

Glacia
self-released; 2013

3.7 out of 5

By Jerrica Tisdale

In 2012, Jeffrey Trainor began his newest project Western Jaguar. Immediately after establishing it, the Mission, British Columbia resident started mixing sounds and recording vocals for the six tracks of Glacia. He designed them around loops. From there, he developed ideas and based his tracks around these concepts. Finally experimentation occurred to develop beats, vocals, and melodies for Glacia’s songs. Western Jaguar’s Glacia album fuses rock, alternative, techno, and even atmospheric music to produce an album mainly existing in a stream of conscious form.

Each track on Glacia establishes a new world of wonder to explore. The song “Mt. Baker” takes listeners to a dark, eerie place with its otherworldly sounds. It invents a setting of high-anxiety and demon reflections. “Darby” opens with the sound of wind chimes, which symbolizes a welcoming to the world of Glacia. Then it builds on that sound by layering music until it reaches the piercing vocals. Trainor’s vocal on “Darby” feels reminiscent of styles of musical greats like Richard Ashcroft of The Verve. 

“Karoo Mammals” has an electro-pop tone with the general beats and vocal effects, along with the diction behind Trainor’s words. Listeners are submerged into water with these sounds, which works well with the water and oceans themes. “Violet Sweatshirt” shifts from fast guitar strokes to smoother beats throughout the single making it a perfect blend of rock and pop.

All the tracks on Glacia contain omniscient and ambiguous lyrics. These lyrics create a hazy quality to take fans of Trainor, Western Jaguar, and Glacia beyond the realm of normal, general albums. The Glacia album possesses so much character that it’s like reading an abstract book from an author you love; you understand the tone, but the new perspective makes you respect their talent and ambition even more than expected. 

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