Words by Emily Williams
Up-and-coming Glasgow rock band Anchor Lane released their second album entitled, Call This A Reality? on 27th January 2023. The album follows their first successful album Casino which reached Number 9 on Official UK Rock Albums Chart in its 2020 release. Call This A Reality? embraces indie undertones and showcases heavy guitar work that complements the vocals from Conor Gaffney. The guitar work is really what stands out consistently to me in their discography and continues to dominate in their new album. The themes throughout this work discuss topics of rage and toxic love and simultaneously explore ideas of darkness and actuality. The opening track Stutter combines all this, making it a perfect energetic opening to the album that continues to solidify their sound.
The title track questions reality in the songwriting asking; ÔÇÿIs that a shadow in my mirror/ or just make-believe?ÔÇÖ. The album was written in Glasgow during the months of the coronavirus pandemic, which may have influenced the band to explore the concept of reality. The single and final song on the 12-track album,┬áI DonÔÇÖt Have Another Soul to Pour┬ádiscusses the mental torment of love and pain; the song┬áNitroglycerine, my personal favourite on the album, offers strong instrumental and distorted vocals that lyrically seem to metaphorically compare the rejection of love to physical pain.
The band have clearly taken influence from the likes of Nothing but Thieves, Foo Fighters and Royal Blood. The instrumental across this album and their previous successful album Casino demonstrates their clear passion for alternative rock and combined with their talent, makes a strong impression that is bound to smash the charts. I can imagine this album will be incredible played live at their upcoming UK headline tour.
