Saturday, December 1, 2012

Modern: Crystal Castles III 8/10 (and Through the Years)


Crystal Castles has two kinds of songs: the ones that anesthetize your body and bring you to a state of complete calm, and the ones that go past your ears and overload all your senses with the sheer sound and feel of chaos; both styles force you to focus only on the music.  This may not sound like a good thing; however, Crystal Castles has pulled it off not once, but three times in a mere four years.  Crystal Castles's III definitely takes a turn towards the relaxed, but still holds onto the use of extreme noise as displayed in II (I seems to be a perfect combination of the two styles).  The contrast is interesting; how Alice Glass whispers you into mental numbness in III, instead of screaming you awake in II; how III goes down easily, allowing you to let go of your body and relax completely, while II's gritty sound forces itself into your mind and takes over.  In this new album, the beats are slower, the vocals are less screeching, the noise is overall less imposing to the listener's brain, but the impact is the same.  Crystal Castles remains a force not to be listened to lightly.

examples of "smooth" songs: 
Transgender (III)

examples of "rough" songs:
Xxzxcuzx Me (I)
Alice Practice (I)
Pale Flesh (III)

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