Overly emotional indie rock is nothing out of the ordinary in a genre that is overflowing with abstract band names and lengthy song titles you’ll never remember. Flashbulb Fires

Glory

Record Label: Fianc Music

Rocks Like: Placebo, Phantom Planet, Death Cab for Cutie

Grade: B +

Overly emotional indie rock is nothing out of the ordinary in a genre that is overflowing with abstract band names and lengthy song titles you’ll never remember.

But, just when it’s beginning to seem like emerging bands in the alternative scene are all one in the same, an unexpected group that proves us wrong appears.

Flashbulb Fires, a Denver-based indie-rock group whose home-recorded first album catapulted them into a national tour, breaks through the mold of the dime-a-dozen indie sound and forces listeners to look at the genre itself in a whole new light.

Their debut LP, Glory, is a fusion of melodramatic and upbeat pop rock set to an orchestral sound of horns, trumpets and harps alongside pulsating drum and guitar sequences.

Songs like “Pyramid Scheme” create a big band sound from a simple four-member group by syncing horns, drum rolls, cymbals and the pulls of a harp.

Such creative musical mixtures are paired with cleverly abstract lyrics — “Let’s start a pyramid scheme/ We could do it underneath your sheets” — and the compelling vocals of Patrick McGuire, whose unique sound closely matches that of Brian Molko of Placebo.

The other tracks on the album change instrumental formulas from song to song, always leaving the listener wondering what to expect next.

The eerie chime-like sounds behind a melodramatic piano and drawn out horns in “Rope and River” evoke a darker, morbid feel.

The band then does a complete 180 in “Brunette,” which speaks of waiting for “a girl in red to drive over me” and “bury me alive under your soft sunlight.”

These pleasantly love-tinged lyrics are paired with a much more poppy feel of quick drum rolls, high-pitched horns and soft vocals.

The track “Heavy Hands” is reminiscent of The Killers (think “Read My Mind”) with its drawn-out vocals and intensifying drum and guitar combination that ultimately lead to a climax of intensely perfect melody.

The LP ends with “Blind Leading the Blind,” a slow-paced song with a trippy beat that seems to mix the sounds of Pink Floyd and The Beatles (circa “Strawberry Fields”).

The band synthesizes striking harmonies with brooding lyrics and penetrating vocals that prove their placement in a spot above the rest.

We definitely don’t need any more piano-driven, overly emotional indie music, and Flashbulb Fires slashes through this stereotype with a vengeance, showing a whole new side to the American indie genre.

The band’s ever-changing sound and intense mixture of instruments is a refreshing alteration that will hopefully encourage other artists to follow in their unique footsteps.