Last week I made a list of my top five albums of the first half of the year. It is less than a week since that post and I already regret some of those selections. Not that they are not good, but because I discovered some excellent releases that came during the same time. One of those is "In Love with Oblivion" by the Brooklyn band called the Crystal Stilts. I always knew about the band, but I never got around listening to their material until this past weekend; and it was love at first listen.
Crystal Stilts sounds like an all-star team of some influential music from the past. Take the sound of the Velvet Underground, replace Lou Reed with Ian Curtis or Jim Morrison of The Doors, either one will work. After that; craft jovial 60s melodies then drench them with reverb and a wall of sound that was used by shoegazing bands of the late 80s and early 90s. The end result will be psyched out rock and roll that sounds delicate yet aggressive and ugly.
“Through the Floor” is the single from the bands sophomore release "In Love with Oblivion". The track showcases the band at their best, nonchalantly jamming out. At only two minutes and change, the song sounds dreamy and distant. With lines that state “Figures are forming/ to find us a door/Numbers are trying/ to say something more”. On paper these lyrics look clumsy at best; but when they are combined with the rest of the music they work really well. I love the simple but yet effective drumming, coupled with some timely handclaps. The guitar has a great crunchy sound in the intro of the song and the organ sounds really cheap but it manages to captures that magical vintage sound that I adore.
8/10
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