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A good time has to end somewhere. Leaving the trail of broken glass and perforated eardrums generated by their first two albums behind them, (III) finds Ethan and Alice huddled in the cold, waiting for the night bus home, more disillusioned than ever.
(III) is simultaneously their darkest and most melodic, listenable album yet. Whilst their trademark energy and defiant contrarianism is still evident in places, for the most part the pair sound like they’ve been worn down into a softer, more beautiful version of themselves.
Of course, despite the reputation their live shows have earned them, Crystal Castles have never been (entirely) about abrasiveness. In and amongst the throwing-shattered- glass-at-your-eyes hooks, they’ve always been capable of delivering that odd melody that pulls you into the corner for an unexpected kiss on the cheek. It’s just that before songs like ‘Violent Dreams’ and ‘Tell Me What to Swallow’ were the exception. Now they’re the rule.
Setting an improbably catchy cut-up vocal line against dragging bass, ‘Kerosene’ sounds remarkably like something that could’ve been produced by Skream or Burial, whilst other highlights stray even further from the chilled end of the spectrum towards something like ambience. ‘Transgender’ and ‘Child I Will Hurt You’, two of the best tracks on the record, both have a Mount Kimbie-esque sparseness to them.
Ironically, it’s the album’s most upbeat moments that provide the only real lows. ‘Sad Eyes,’ which sounds like it could’ve been the theme tune for the Monkey Island game franchise had it been set on Ibiza in the heyday of euphoric trance, is particularly out of place. The spiky posturing of ‘Insulin’, on the other hand, is just boring.
That said, when they do settle on melodic gloom the results are stunning. The short but epic ‘Mercenary’ fills its bass frequencies with what sounds like an immense weight of water breaching a doomed hull, leaving acts like Chelsea Wolfe and Forest Swords sounding positively cheery by comparison, whilst tunes like ‘Affection’, ‘Wrath of God’ and ‘Pale Flesh’ are danceable, pensive and gorgeous all at once.
Alice has claimed her writing process for the album has been informed by a belief that “the world is a dystopia where victims don’t get justice and corruption prevails.” Unless there’s a radical overhaul of the way the planet’s run, you can only expect Crystal Castles to slide further into darkness, getting better as they go. It’s a win-win.
