Album Review- Crystal Castles

So the super cool Crystal Castles have released their second album, presumably just to make all the thousands of drooling NME readers to wipe their mouths and pull out their wallets. The second self titled album is a follow up to their debut release 2 years ago.

I think the charm in the last album, and i use the word charm lightly, was that it was so simple. There was a certain enjoyment gained from the fact that it sounded as if it had been knocked out on your brothers smashed up game boy and a dodgy midi-keyboard. It probably was. It took me an incredibly long time to like, with my initial reaction being "what the fuck is this noise", or something simular (and unfortunately the only time i decided to go and see them live at Reading festival was during this period of confusion and annoyance).

However, I eventually warmed to a number of stand out tracks, and it is with this (extremely shakey basis) that I write this review. It's needless to say that I wasn't expecting much. Unlike many people, I don't think Alice Practice is a genius and that sound, whilst fun, is just that.....a bit of fun.

However, there is a marked change in sounds in this album. Producer Ethan Kath has changed and refined the once raw and jagged loops and made something different. It's much easier to relate it to dance and conventional electro, on the whole. The standout tracks for me are 'Vietnam' and 'Empathy', for this very reason. They're both rounded and well produced tracks, with the same over-sampled singing from Alice that fans grew to love after the first album.

There are still a few relatively unlistenable tracks, and parts of tracks of what sounds like Gabba but with Alice shrieking over the top, and as a result i don't see it as a complete album... whilst it might have stand out tracks those short screamed interludes are boring and unecessary. Frankly, anybody who claims that it's pushing boundries of electronic music can fuck off because it's not. It's noise with too much feedback and it completely ruins the feel of the album when it's surrounded by comparatively well produced electro-dance tracks.

However, the album does have some incredibly sucessful moments, including when on 'Year of Silence', Alice produces some fantastic vocals. I just don't, unfortunately, see this sort of music as the future....and this certainly isn't the album to carry electronic music forward.

6/10

If, from this poorly written piece of crap you think "hey, that sounds amazing! Dave is probably just lying again because he's wrong about music and I'm right", then you can pre-order the album here. And if you're still not satisfied, then why not check out their suprisingly cool selection of t-shirts here