Written by: Alex Green

Our Track of the Day today comes from the Seattle outfit Glorybots.

On a busman’s holiday from his band Echo Texture, singer/songwriter Jalal Andre’ is the Glorybots’ braintrust, and the music he’s making under that moniker is an infectious blend of angular indie rock and dreamy grooves all set against cascading cinematic soundscapes.

A riveting blast of searing post-punk and riveting Kid-A era textures, “Nomad”  is a positively otherworldly number that’s punctuated by Andre’s stunning falsetto. An instant classic, “Nomad” is so soaringly melodic, it’s practically impossible to get out of your head.

Taken from the band’s Dark Alien Pop debut, “Nomad” brings to mind the spacey terrain of Bowie’s Scary Monsters and the dark grind of Bauhaus’ “In The Flat Field.” 

The song’s chorus (“Born to leave/I’m a runaway/I’m a runaway/Forced to leave/I’m a runaway”) confronts the dilemma that leaving is just half of the battle, and finding a new home is the other. Although the track is steeped in metaphor–we all feel a bit alien and foreign in our own skin–it can also serve as a perfect sonic rendering of the very terrestrial and current issue of those searching for geographical asylum. 

“Watching the tragedy of people seeking asylum from the difficult circumstances in their home countries, and having the doors cruelly close on them, is like a cry to all of us,” Andre says. “We can recognize in our own lives that we’ve also sought asylum from something, or for whatever reason. A person who is constantly running away is a nomad, seeking refuge anyplace he or she can. But we don’t really need to be any more alienated. There needs to be a hope that we can all find a place to call home.”