Crystal Castles (II)
Album | Crystal Castles
Surprisingly fun, tuneful follow-up to an abrasive debut.
On their second self-titled album in a row, Crystal Castles don't entirely abandon the assaultive noise vibe of their debut -- the brief "Doe Deer" is if anything even more aggressively ear-splitting than 2008's "Alice Practice" -- but the Toronto indie-dance duo wisely dial it back a bit. As a result, the mostly-buried pop hooks that peppered the first record are more obvious this time out; first single "Celestia" and the creepy/dreamy "Suffocation" are downright pretty, in fact. Alice Glass and Ethan Kath still prefer to approach their songs from oblique angles, though: "Baptism" is built on a killer 8-bit dance-punk riff that shreds any of the hooks on LCD Soundsystem's disappointing This Is Happening, and "Empathy" is a gloriously woozy bit of dancefloor psychedelia, but on both, Glass' lead vocals are heavily processed and buried in the mix, as if to make sure they won't be mistaken for conventional pop songs. Elsewhere, Kath and Glass mutate the same sample (from Swedish art-pop chanteuse Stina Nordenstam's "I See You Again") into two very different songs, and the duo essay a surprisingly straightforward cover of "Not In Love," a 1984 hit by the rather cheesy Canadian new wavers Platinum Blonde.
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