Cranes
Loved

THE REVIEW

Band from another era, the Cranes: romantic, ethereal, icy... undeniably great. After the excellent "Wings of Joy" and the beautiful "Forever" (not to forget the demo "Self-No-Self"), the Cranes remain consistent even with the fourth album "Loved", a work perhaps too underestimated compared to its real value.

Dark and gloomy like the most depressed dark-wave, delicate and spectral like the most enveloping dream pop, the Portsmouth group represents a sort of encounter between Cure and Cocteau Twins, but viewed in a more elegiac key. Pushed by the prestigious support of Mr. Robert Smith (as we were saying..) they have been able to stand out for a quite personal style capable of evolving over time, totally based on the fascinating contrast between dreamlike guitar themes, psychedelic dissonances, and Shaw's fragile innocent little voice, who also handles the bass on the record. The beautiful and brooding leader sings these slow lullabies with a delicate and childish falsetto with an effect to say the least suggestive. Nothing to do with the brilliant Liv Kristine or the classic 90's goth stereotype of beauty and the beast: rather something more complex and metaphysical, a solemn and hypnotic lament emulating a child's cry. Pure splendor. 

The problem (or the beauty, depending on the perspective) is that we are talking about a dozen records with the same "whining" and monotone voice without ever changing its register: there are generally two reactions: 1 Getting bored quickly, something like hitting your balls with a hammer. 2 Fully entering this magnificent spiral of suffocating and supernatural gray watercolors, of which Alison's celestial voice is only the cherry on top, that something extra. And watch out for that "extra": change its setting, remove the "Lolita" attire and the cloying yet exquisite naive pose and we have nothing more than one of the many dream pop... shoegaze... gothic... darkwave bands or whatever you want, since they fit in more or less all of that (even arriving at apocalyptic-industrial territories on the never too celebrated "La Tragédie d'Oreste et Electre"). Hence, it's clear how Shaw represents an element with a more than fundamental role within the English ensemble, here completed by Mark Francombe and the jack-of-all-trades Jim Shaw on guitar (the latter also on keyboards and drums), as well as the author of the songs along with his sister. 

A band thus with a well-defined musical identity and clear ideas. Jim's omnipresent acoustic guitar paints canvases now graceful, now sinister, to accompany the pounding and lascivious drum beat, like in the most classic gothic scenario; distant distorted guitars and the always very lively sound of bass, punctuated by sporadic insertions of strings and piano, are the main elements on which the sound of "Loved" is based. Tracks like the march "Force of the Entity", the dark pulsation of "Reverie" and the sweet gloom of "Bewildered" gain strength from this cluster of style ideas creating that dark and desolate atmosphere (but not too much, considering a certain barely concealed spiritual joy often difficult to see) which is typical of the band, here betrayed only by the sweet "Shining Road" and by the mild frivolity of "Pale Blue Sky".

Alison's gentle and childlike singing reaches significant peaks on the unsettling lullaby "Paris and Rome" and on the masterpiece "Beautiful Friend": extended atmospheres, slide guitar, and insistent drumming model a foggy melody with remarkably resigned tones. The repetitive noises and disharmonies of "In The Night" harken back to the beginnings of "Self-No-Self", "Come This Far" is more gothic than all, while the acoustic and dramatic charm of "Are You Gone" reminds, this time very closely, of the Cocteau Twins.

A rediscovery together with the previous two. Lovable!