Vanderlye – The Reckoning (2025)
There’s a raw, windswept power in The Reckoning, the new EP from Glasgow’s Vanderlye, a band that has always thrived in the grey area between the personal and the political, the intimate and the anthemic. On this bold six-track offering, the alt-rock five-piece push their sound to a darker, richer place, without losing the luminous hooks and sweeping dynamics that first caught attention across Scotland’s indie scene.
From the opening moments of ‘Understand’, there’s a newfound vulnerability at play. Built on skeletal piano and aching strings, Becky Clarke’s voice, restrained yet crackling with emotion, carries the weight of grief with elegant simplicity. Written in the wake of personal loss, it’s a quietly devastating beginning that signals just how far the band is willing to go, emotionally and sonically.
If ‘Understand’ is the calm before the storm, then the title track ‘Reckoning’ is the heart of it. Propelled by sunburst guitars and a rhythm section that’s equal parts urgency and uplift, it’s a song that aches with clarity. Here, Clarke and co-vocalist Sean McGarvey trade lines with magnetic tension, their voices colliding and separating in ways that feel both orchestrated and entirely organic. Think The National at their most melodic, or a less cynical Arcade Fire, but with something unmistakably Glaswegian running through its veins. It’s a track built for both introspective headphone sessions and festival main stages.
Throughout The Reckoning, Vanderlye showcase their knack for exploring the messiness of modern life with poetic nuance. ‘This Plastic Ego’ is a jagged, post-punk-infused track that tackles identity and image with a serrated edge. ‘Terrible Comfort’ slows the pace, wrapping apathy and self-awareness into a glacial soundscape, echoing Sigur Rós or mid-era Radiohead. Yet nothing ever feels derivative, Vanderlye borrow the emotional weight of their influences, but sculpt it into something distinctly their own.
One of the EP’s highlights, ‘Romantic Anarchy’, leans into chaos with gleeful abandon, distorted basslines, stuttering percussion, and a sneering vocal performance that smirks even as it spirals. There’s a strange joy in its collapse, a catharsis that feels earned.
The EP closes with the gorgeously unguarded ‘Guilty Lovers & Heartbreak Serenades’, a song that lives up to its cinematic title. It’s a gentle bruiser, all soft harmonies and melancholic defiance. As the final notes drift away, there’s a lingering sense that something has been processed, confronted, perhaps even healed.
Recorded partly at Glasgow’s Castle of Doom Studios and partly by the band’s own guitarist, Calum Steel, The Reckoning sounds expansive without being overproduced – a testament to both vision and restraint. Jamie Holmes’ production adds texture without distraction, letting the band’s dual-vocal interplay and lyrical weight remain centre stage.
With The Reckoning, Vanderlye have crafted more than just a collection of songs, this is a narrative arc, a self-contained universe of sound and emotion. It’s the sound of a band unafraid to confront themselves, and in doing so, they hold up a mirror to the listener as well. A vital, unflinching, and beautifully constructed step forward.
Find out more about Vanderlye on their Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok and Spotify.
