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Rating: Here they are again, quietly and steadily, the two Canadians Crystal Castles, only 24 months after that lustful mess of ultra-kitsch, glitchy, lo-fi electronics imbued with 8-bit sounds enough to make the most nostalgic nerds bounce, which was their self-titled debut. It was already clear from the first record that they weren't exactly the nicest folks, brilliant yes, hallucinatory as well, but certainly dense with rather "tense" atmospheres. At this point, they leave us no room for doubt by putting on the cover a dark-faced girl standing in front of her possibly deceased parents' gravestones and naming this second work "Crystal Castles," just like the previous one.
However, aside from appearances, it’s in the juicy heart of the album that you realize many things have changed in these two years. First of all, those rough and disorienting sounds from the Commodore 64 or NES as one might say, have almost completely disappeared: a sore point for those who, like me, had madly appreciated the Toronto duo's debut. Only a few succulent samples remain in the two most danceable tracks on the album: “Intimate,” a fat and large disco tank, beeping, farting, and polluting, a relentless tour de force for the synapses connecting the brain to the butt. And "Baptism" a nasty, dreamy, and slightly bewildering hyperballad, very much a throwback to one of their old pieces ("Courtship Dating," used by MTV to advertise the series Skins).
The rest, which is most of the album anyway, on the other hand, attempts innovative solutions. Crystal Castles focus everything on a dark and frightening electronics that, while almost danceable, with so much darkness "at stake," will hardly find space in DJ sets and the most colorful parties. For example, do you remember "Mr Kirk's Nightmare" by 4hero (that dance track where you could hear the voice of a policeman warning Mr. Kirk that his son had died because he had taken drugs during a merry, wild night)? A masterful example is "Year of Silence," a dark remix of a super cheerful Sigur Rós track ("Inní mér syngur vitleysingur") in which Jónsi Birgisson's angelic voice turns into a creepy lullaby of a zombie mother rocking her pet. What about the industrial, bouncing and enveloping beats, adorned with dream-pop vocals (always lo-fi and incomprehensible, coming from the depths of a well) of "Empathy" and "Fainting Spells"? And again, between anguished screams on an amphetamine base ("Doe Deer"), the oppressive lines of "Birds" from another planet, slow and sexy headbanging techno ("Vietnam"), Crystal Castles also find time to embrace trends to discover the wobbly, loose, and drunken sounds of so-called hypnagogic pop, but they rumple it with a dark wave key so much that I had to invent a neologism: Hypnagogic Pop (NME is nothing to me... okay, shoot me).
And after you’ve gulped down this big slimy cauldron, you wonder "what the heck did I just listen to?". Indeed, on a first listen it’s hard to remember any particular track. As I said before, much of the immediacy from the pieces that were has been lost, but it must be said that what remains is somewhat akin to the disgusting taste of nicotine that sits in your mouth after smoking a cigarette: it’s disgusting and almost makes you regret having that horrible habit, but inevitably, as soon as it goes away you feel like trying it again. So, the Crystal Castles of 2010, are like that: smoky, unpredictable, disturbing and harmful. Reviewing the first album I had said they could almost be compared to great, much noisier electro bands (Daft Punk, Justice, etc.). I was totally wrong. Crystal Castles were aiming for a very different, sly, mysterious, slippery… well, who knows.
In short, like the vast majority of artists that are offspring of these '00s, it’s not clear where they are heading. But, as long as they do it so well, we’re fine with it this way.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Alice Practice (02:41)
hi
scars, in you, son
you shrug it off
except that you don't
better, it surely
it don't fall out
said,
i live low
i lisp, i die
sugar shooting
bled with deadbeats
only crawl
so your sad eyes
quite christian
blood
drop it, it's dead
we drop it
and took the body home
sad eyes
scars, i'm chopping dagger
see you'll never walk
only stagger.
sad eyes
quite christian
blood
04 Magic Spells (06:06)
Don't worry, dear Pamela, I'll do my scientific best to command your fleet.
05 XXZXCUZX Me (01:53)
We can insist on havoc
Bring me tools, bolts are intact
You said leave me for dead
How can your eyes program my head
We get so fed up with it
Nuts and bolts for granted
Made outta iron, I can do it
As your bodies fall apart
Robotic love
I'm programmed to rust
AIDS robot
Is clad in iron bolts
Robot grunts they whine and chatter
They wanna play with my placenta
Are we hailed deserving
When our silver parts are burning
I know we're just diseased appliances
Where will you live
What will you die for
Sex is killing me
Baby, I know
Wrong time, wrong place, wrong fucking race
Just because we don't feel flesh
Doesn't mean we don't fear death
06 Air War (04:12)
Bronze by gold heard the hoofrons,
steelyringing imperthnthn thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips.
Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the
Gold pinnacled hair.
A jumping rose on satiny breasts of satin,
rose of Castille.
Trilling, trilling: I dolores.
Peep! Who's in the... peepofgold?
Tink cried to bronze in pity.
And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.
Decoy. Soft word. But look! The bright stars fade. O rose! Notes
chirruping answer. Castille. The morn is breaking.
Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.
Coin rang. Clock clacked.
Avowal. Sonnez. I could. Rebound of garter. Not leave thee.
Smack. La cloche! Thigh smack. Avowal. Warm. Sweetheart,
goodbye!
When love absorbs. War! War! The tympanum.
A sail! A veil awave upon the waves.
When first he saw. Alice!
Full tup. Full throb.
Warbling. Ah, lure! Alluring.
Martha! Come!
Clapclop. Clipclap. Clappyclap.
Goodgod henev erheard inall.
A moonlight nightcall: far: far.
I feel so sad. P. S. So lonely blooming.
Listen!
The spiked and winding cold seahorn. Have you the? Each and
for other plash and silent roar.
Pearls: when she. Liszt's rhapsodies. Hissss.
07 Courtship Dating (03:30)
How do I feel for thee?
you smell of great disease
cause we're young
fell in from the stars
when your skin is dead
on a pile of your head
now then, i look so smart
stove burn on my hands
show them to my friends
make you participate
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions to procreate
heaven should interfere
im coming from your tears
when they wander into their cage
so their arms and thighs
and their holy covered eyes
just yet, will never age
3x:
stove burn on my hands
show them to my friends
make you participate
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions to procreate
stove burn on my hands
show them to my friends
make you participate
make you participate
or
how good it feels for me
you smell great disease
cause we're young
fell in from the stars
when your skin is dead
and a pile of your heads
now then, i look so far
super, over here
tell them, kill my friends
make your body pierce the pain
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions of the hosiery
im suppose to interfere
im coming from your fears
when they wander into their cage
so their arms and thighs
and their holy covered eyes
just yet, will never age
super, over here
tell them, kill my friends
make your body pierce the pain
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions of the hosiery
super, over here
tell them, kill my friends
make your body pierce the pain
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions of the hosiery
super, over here
tell them, kill my friends
make your body pierce the pain
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions of the hosiery
super, over here
tell them, kill my friends
make your body pierce the pain
eyes roll back around
when skulls hit the ground
visions of the hosiery
make your body pierce the pain
15 Black Panther (02:57)
Close my eyes all that I see
Is a group of spawn chewing at me
Try to breathe, say it can't be true
There's no way I came out of you
Different love is what we're talking about
It's different blood on the back of my hands
Too old to be my daughter
Too young to be my friend
It's supposed to be a real bond
Somebody's guts hanging at the door
I'll give you the blood in me
There's no way you came out of me
Different love is what we're talking about
It's different blood on the back of my hands
Too old to be my daughter
Too young to be my friend
You're covered in the lotion
That was inside of me
I'll throw you in the ocean
I'll pass you to the sea
You're covered in the lotion
That was inside of me
I'll throw you in the ocean
I'll pass you to the sea
Different love is what we're talking about it's
Different love is what we're talking about it's
Different love is what we're talking about it's
Different love is what we're talking about it's
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