Crystal Stilts
(Slumberland)
You'll get a good whiff of Creation Records off these reverb-heavy, bass-driven grooves, which clank and drone like Jesus & Mary Chain, but slip in a bit of Felt's pop iridescence. Singer Brad Hargett has got the deep, hollow-toned Brit-voice down, though he hails from Brooklyn, and JB Townsend manages to make jangly tangles of guitar both light-hearted and ominous. A tambourine clatters through the whole album, so that no matter how fun-house echoey things turn -- and they do seem to be recording in a concrete bunker -- you always know it's a party. And if you get lost in the clouds and fogs of sound, there is always the bass line (that's Andy Adler of the Ninjas) galloping forward to guide you.
All 11 tracks are swathed in cotton-candy drifts of fuzzy echo, so that they blend together in a dark, hedonistic daydream. Still if you have to pick favorites, why pass over opener "The Dazzled" shuffling bleary-eyed on loping bass and three-chord simplicity? Or the lo-fi Spector walls of "Prismatic Room", a giant pop song recorded on a budget of nothing at all? Or radiantly soft-focus early single "Shattered Shine"?
Word has it that Crystal Stilts aren't much good live. It's also not clear whether, if you stripped off the moody lo-fi production, the songs would stand up on their own. (We've reviewed way too many disappointing, bigger-budget follow-ups to discount the charms of low-budget recording.) Still, the record in hand is super fun. Why not give them the benefit of the doubt?
Standout Tracks: "The Dazzled", "Prismatic Room", "Shattered Shine" JENNIFER KELLY
