Crystal Castles - 3

Crystal Castles - Plague

Runs for: 4:55

Pretty wicked opener to be fair. Kinda shows that they're making progress as a band, even though it's subtle.

There's a free download link on the youtube page for this song! I DUNNO MAYBE DOWNLOAD IT

Crystal Castles are a band I rated the shit out of come their second release. It was a thousand different things. Sometimes loud, abrasive, ghost-house horrifying, then sometimes as calm and enchanting as a good hard stare into the depths of space. I first heard the album after a music festival two years back and sat through it, knowing full well I couldn’t get to sleep and that moment has always stuck with me. The wonder of the album, the obscurity of the situation – I wasn’t a part of the ‘normal’ in that moment. I was listening to a fucking crazy album in a fucking crazy world – and I was completely ok with it. Over the following weeks, it made my brain challenge sound, construction of music and the use of noise. In my head it pushed boundaries.

Now three comes out. I gave it a listen the other week, praying that it would strangle out my sense of normal like the first one did. My prayers went unanswered. On the first listen it came off as rather uninspired. There wasn’t any of that chaos that the second album held, and a lot of the songs sounded samey. I gotta admit though, plagues struck me as  pretty good on first listen when it was released as a sample. Right now tho I sit at my desk in my dull office right now, ready to give it another listen. Lets see how we go.

Firstly, Plagues. Synth work is pretty wicked and it’s got both that cool trance vibe that some of the more mellow tracks off 2 had. It’s a step up, but it’s super subtle. Nothing ground breaking, inspiring or evocative. Still though, it’s an easy listen, keeps a good beat and it’s a pretty likeable track.

Kerosene is mixed really well – listening to it with your headphones, the drums and bass hit with a weird force that fucks with your head. The synth work is cool and the song has some pretty wicked bridging and some weird vocal warping used as a backing sound. It’s classic of what I’d expected from 2 – weird, different, but most of all GOOD.

Wrath of God is floaty, kind of calm, keeps a regular beat but just strikes me as boring. The drums don’t smash out or anything, the synth keeps a pretty dull pattern and the vocals aren’t really drawing any sort of emotion out of me. There’s some cool effects close to the end of the song but it’s too subtle for it to be considered interesting really.

Affection is kind of cool. the drums are a bit off which is interesting, synth is nice and thumpy, keeps the listener interested, until you realise the song isn’t going anywhere. So I’m kind of sitting here getting my ears jerked by this song only for it to get tired half way and leave me without a climax. Man.

Pale Flesh strikes me as pretty dancey. I can see me getting down to this and really enjoying it. It’s got a dirty as shit beat going on and has this sweet habit of thumping the listener with a stack of noise and vocals. However, the track doesn’t really build up into anything outside of that which sucks.

Sad Eyes has this operatic electronica sound and that disco beat that Crystal Castles subtly puts in some of their songs. It’s another track that feels close to what these guys do best, and yeah it’s a pretty decent track. It kind of outlines the difference between this album and the last – they’ve definitely improved on the sound that they know best, but the song writing is falling a bit behind, seeming kind of familiar yet a little uninspired compared to the earlier work.

Insulin… oh look it’s doe deer mark 2. Pretty much a noise track, which is kind of the first real burst of difference on the album. Kind of cool but a bit too short to make a difference.

Transgender opens with a pretty cool little synth progression, nice bass-ey part underlying and starts to pick up pretty nicely. Drums kick in and it’s got a solid sound to it. Still, remains pretty samey after a bit but I can see myself dancing to it.

Violent Youth has a very cool sound to it and drum and bass wise will fuck with your skull a little bit if you’re wearing headphones. And they change up the sounds a bit as the song progresses! This might be my favourite track so far. Nice, fast, sweet beat, weird sounds going on, progression changes moreso than other tracks on the album… yeah man. Just reeks of a good effort.

By this stage of the album I’m starting to really dig it. The sounds are evolving. Telepath uses some really fucking cool sound effects, backs it with a nice beat, chops the progression around a bit too. Can totally see myself dancing to this.

Mercenary doesn’t really do it for me. Track is a bit boring. The effects are pretty alright but it doesn’t really do much as a song until the end where they throw on this good bazz fuzz effect which, as cool as it is, really can’t save an otherwise boring song.

As the last track, Child I Will Hurt You strikes me as a decent finisher. It’s pretty relaxing and easy to listen to, and to be fair if Crystal Castles ever made an attempt at a nearly relaxing track, it’d have to be at the end of an album that warrants so much movement.

Overall though I gotta say I’m not too stoked on the final product. Not saying that the last album was perfect… but here, there are moments of brilliance that are trumped by songs that don’t nurture them. Whenever something sounded good, the rest of the song let it down by repeating it, no chopping or changing, no advancement on the sound by chucking in a good backing chorus synth or some shit – just seems like in some places they’ve realised they can appeal to a larger market and tried to both evolve their signature sound while making it more accessible. Maybe it worked. Maybe I’ve got higher standards in music which is why I’m not so stoked on it. Who knows man. That said though what IS good on the album is fucking fantastic and I’m gonna hope what is good starts making its way onto playlists at dj sets or house parties. Fingers crossed.

Reccomended for: People who hate electronica but are willing to give it a shot, house heads who can deal with a bit of rough edge,

P.s. getting the feeling this one is a grower. I shot back on some of the tracks I liked and they didn't jump at me like they did when i was hearing them consecutively... there's logic in that sentence. trust.

Crystal Castles - Violent Youth

Runs for: 4:21
I just did a track by track review.

Fuck the extra comment, scroll up!