In Love With Oblivion

Crystal Stilts may secretly wish they were the Velvet Underground, but who can really blame them? The Brooklyn band's second album maintains the momentum of 2008's Alight of Night with some of their most cohesive songwriting to date. Featuring vocalist Brad Hargett, who channels the ghosts of Jim Morrison and Ian Curtis (along with a dash of the still-kicking Ian McCulloch), these record store rockers range from late '60s psychedelia to post-punk drone, all with a decidedly darker tinge than before. The seven-minute, Bauhaus-esque death march "Alien Rivers" in particular pushes the band further in the goth direction than ever before. Elsewhere, the marginally brighter "Invisible City" and "Precarious Stair" flaunt synthesizer sounds that could have been plucked from a Moog demonstration record circa 1968. At times, In Love With Oblivion manages to shake the moping and get a groove going: rabble-rousing leadoff track "Sycamore Tree" might be their most engaging song to date, while first single "Shake the Shackles" is likely to become one of the band's live highlights. Though this might be the least uplifting album heard all year, Crystal Stilts remain at the forefront of the Brooklyn music scene.