Complimented with vocals not unlike someone shouting in a bathroom, it just works.
Kerosene crystal castles lyrics full#
Not to be held down by introspective lyrics, (III) is fantastically full of energy, jumping from gentle shoegaze or rave-worthy, coked-out beats like with no trouble. “I can clean impurity, wash away with kerosene,” sings Glass, later adding “I’ll protect you from all the things I’ve seen.” On tracks like “Kerosene,” where they really surface, Glass’s troubles are more obvious. In a way, that’s part of the appeal Glass’s words slip into the song itself. Like most of Crystal Castles’ songs, the vocals are difficult to understand. Alice Glass has spoken previously about undergoing many personal difficulties between this album and the last, and it shows in her loaded lyrics. In an effort to create a new sound, the band has traded in instruments used in previous albums, opting for new keyboards and pedals.
The experimental electronica Canadian duo returns with (III), a 12-track album packed with impossibly catchy beats. Each self-titled entry is instead branded with a number-a good choice, considering each feels like a chapter in the same book, rather than a new novel itself. And while the typical goth jokes came easy when "Affection" dropped on Halloween, look at it in the context of being just another day: the New York Marathon planned to go on despite the destruction of Hurricane Sandy, the cover of the latest Sports Illustrated featured a story surveying the "resilience" of the Penn State football team a year after the Jerry Sandusky scandal erupted, and we were in the homestretch of an American presidential election that actually fostered the discussion of what constitutes "legitimate rape." Whether you listen to Crystal Castles or not, this is a time of confrontation, conflict, and stress, and the success of (III) is how it brings you close enough to the evil that men do to be shocked, repulsed, and affected by it.Every new album Crystal Castles releases is lacking one thing: a name. Albums by Swans and Godspeed You! Black Emperor view 2012 in the Mayan sense, predicting a form of divine retribution that will be cataclysmic but also possibly awesome. Pop music is often considered to be synonymous with escapism, but it can also be cathartic, and many records this year have shared (III)'s apocalyptic bent. So how is this popular, exactly? Fair question. At the end of the tightly coiled "Kerosene", Glass reveals a desire to connect, breathing a promise of equal menace and love: "I'll protect you from all the things I've seen." Glass' lyrics are often addressed to children facing horrors they can't quite process or future atrocities they can't imagine- references to blood, wounds, antiseptics, and soil are frequent, as well as a warning to "sell your bones for ivory." Shortly after the release of Crystal Castles (II), they re-cast its cover of Platinum Blonde's "Not in Love" with Robert Smith on lead vocals, resulting in their most successful single to date, but it had the unintended effect of making the emotional illegibility of their own version more apparent. Insularity is nothing new for Crystal Castles, as both of their self-titled records existed in a sort of personal airlock. Even the all-texture tracks ("Telepath", "Insulin") are more driven by rhythm than abrasion they contribute to the overall flow rather than hijacking it. Crystal Castles songs could once be split into two camps, the "pretty" ones and the "aggressive" ones (III) is the duo's most focused record, and the fact that it avoids assaults like "Doe Deer" or "Alice Practice" demonstrates an alluring confidence. While not as immediately striking as either Crystal Castles (I or II), the streamlined sound allows more maneuverability and subtle variety in the actual songwriting. "Pale Flesh" exhumes witch house for just long enough to beat it at its own game, "Sad Eyes" is pure rave throwback, and the call-and-response hooks that materialize as scrambled vocal transmissions ("Kerosene") and longing synth countermelodies ("Affection") come off like power-pop played by catatonic automatons. As promised, it is unyieldingly "bleak." Even the catchy songs are filtered through a forbidding darkness. The music now conveys a sense of unease somewhere between waiting for the drugs to kick in and wanting to leave the club as soon as possible.
It retains Ethan Kath's trademark staggered synths and Glass' acute wail still pierces through thick reverb. Though the duo claims to have overhauled their recording process for (III), trading in all of their gear and disallowing the use of computers in the studio, the album couldn't be mistaken for the work of anyone else.
0 kommentar(er)
