Music / Alice Glass

Trauma Queen

Alice Glass (born Margaret Osborn, 1988) is a musician and singer from Toronto, Canada. Formerly the lead vocalist of electronic band Crystal Castles, she quit the band in 2015, citing years of manipulation and abuse at the hands of her bandmate. After this, she then launched her own solo career, releasing several one off singles before her debut EP in 2017 (along with a remix EP) then her debut full length album, PREY//IV, in 2021, both produced by her partner Jupiter Keyes. As a solo artist her music contains elements of Alternative Dance, Glitch, witch house, Noise Pop, and Industrial, with more emphasis placed on her voice and lyrics. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

This page refers to Alice's solo music. Go here for tropes pertaining to her previous band.

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Discography

• Alice Glass (EP) (2017)
• Alice Glass Remixes (2017)
• PREY//IV (2021)

Tropes:

• Album Intro Track: "Prey."
• Animated Music Video: "Baby Teeth" and "Suffer and Swallow." The latter is Stop Motion by Mexican artist Lucas David.
• Anti-Christmas Song: Played with in the video for "I Trusted You," which features Alice singing in front of Christmas light displays.
• Appeal to Worse Problems: On "The Altar." Though the sentiments on the song aren't meant to be very healthy or inspiring.
  Somewhere else, someone else feels worse
  All your regret cannot be reversed
• Arc Symbol: The "moon dagger" symbol she uses as her logo, designed by David Brinley. She and her partner Jupiter Keyes have matching tattoos of the symbol on their hands.
• Boastful Rap: Has a rap-sung verse on "LEGEND" with Alice Longyu Gao.
• Breaking the Bonds: The video for "Fair Game." A girl chained to several blocks is taunted by Alice (via the song lyrics), she manages to break free and go towards Alice, only to find that she was (literally) just smoke and mirrors.
• Broken Pedestal: "I Trusted You."
  I trusted you
  It's like a dream that I had
  And now reality bends
  I trusted you...
• Call-Back:
  • A Take That! on "Without Love," she sings "Tell me when to spit, don't tell me what to swallow," a direct reference to the song on the first Crystal Castles album "Tell Me What To Swallow."
  • PREY//IV's album cover is an homage to the infamous black-eyed Madonna image from the Alice Practice EP that got them sued.
• Caps Lock: Every song on PREY//IV.
• Careful with That Axe: It is Alice after all.
• Concept Video: For "Love Is Violence," which follows two young goth lovers watching Alice perform on a TV screen, then they start making out. And then biting each other. And then killing and eating each other.
• Collector of the Strange: She collects dolls, her favorites being Byul and antique Victorian dolls.
• Cover Version: Of "Drown" by The Smashing Pumpkins. She also teased a cover of Aqua's "Barbie Girl" which may or may not have leaked online.
• Creepy Doll: The "Suffer and Swallow" video, fitting for Alice's real life love of dolls and classic horror movie tropes.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Goes by Alice even in her personal life, and does not appreciate being referred to as Margaret.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: The video for "Cease and Desist" which features repetitive flashing images of animals, fires, car crashes, and Alice on stage.
• Face on the Cover: Both the EP and her debut album.
• Hell Is That Noise: Songs like "White Lies" and "Animosity" have loud startling washes of noise. "Cease and Desist" stands out as especially noisy, because it was co-produced by power-electronics musician Dreamcrusher.
• Hyper Pop: Her music is considered to be a precursor to this.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The music video for "Love Is Violence," which gets pretty hard to watch even for Alice Glass standards.
• Mundane Horror: One darkly funny line in "Baby Teeth:"
  Whatcha thinking' 'bout, boy?
  Picturing my insides outside me?
• Numbered Sequels: Played with. PREY//IV contains the number 4 since, despite being her first solo record, it's her fourth album overall, the albums she made with Crystal Castles included, playing on how they used to Title by Number their albums. Intended as a statement against her former bandmate who often tried to discredit her involvement in the band.
• Ominous Music Box Tune: "Everybody Else" is this.
• Perky Goth: Could be the poster girl for this.
• Precision F-Strike: "Natural Selection."
  GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!
• Punny Title: PREY//IV, when read in tandem with her name, reads as "Pray For Alice Glass."
• Remix Album: Released a whole EP of remixes for her first EP, featuring many goth heavy hitters such as Pictureplane, Chelsea Wolfe, Zola Jesus, and Yves Tumor.
• Self-Titled Album: Her first EP.
• Shout-Out:
  • The video for "Baby Teeth" is an homage to Alice: Madness Returns.
  • Her first tour was titled "the Lady Snowblood tour" after the samurai revenge film of the same name.
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Plays this in "Everybody Else."
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "The Altar" and "I Trusted You."
• Textless Album Cover: PREY//IV. The self-titled EP has text on it in the corner, though it's hard to see.