The
Crash Kings debut album should be trumpeted as a triumph of rhythmic simplicity and melodic accessibility.
The rhythm is the thing. Instrumentally, vocally. There's only three of them in this band, but it sounds like a small army, all overturning the barricades at the same time. It's not hip hop, it's not slam, and there's a garage band rawness that melds beautifully with a songwriting sophistication. Some trick.
The vast majority of Post Grunge bands have settled for the corporate rock dollar, ironically mirroring the situation that created the movement in the first place. So, we should be glad that post, post grunge bands like the
Crash Kings have picked up the baton and are running headlong into uncharted territory (okay, maybe The
White Stripes have done a fair bit of prior exploration), clutching a bright and colourful bunch of cutting edge songs and sounds.
The trio - Antonio and Michael Beliveau, plus Jason Morris - surf in on a tidal wave of grand pianos, driven by an undertow of drum and bass.
Surprisingly perhaps, though the music can be raucous and ear splittingly loud, the arrangements are often seductively lush. The uplifting strings on
'Come Away' sprinkle just enough magic dust to demonstrate that great rock music can be created without guitars. Drum and bass symphonic rock.
'1985' and '
Non Believer' pick up on the nasal choirboy vocals and sixties-pop-percolated-through-seventies-rock sound of Jellyfish. Fade out the guitars, turn up the piano forte.
On '
Raincoat' -
Journey for 2009 - the bass and the drums hit the ground running, striding out arm in arm, pushing a thundering, resounding piano and Beliveau's paint stripping vocal up to the front.
Beliveau's voice again digs deep and rises triumphantly on
'You Got Me', not so much peeling away layers of emotion as blowing them away by sheer strength of will, leading the band from the front on a surprisingly strong groove.
Only
'Saving Grace' doesn't quite work, it huffs and it puffs but never catches up with the others.
But that is a minor hiccup. The album closes with the magnificently apposite
'My Love', a rough mix of Big Star's ragged edged romanticism and sixties' Britpop with a bigger kickdrum.
The album is only 36 minutes in duration, but there's more music and energy packed into this than you could ever imagine.
My album of the year so far, unequivocally.
Written by
Brian Monday, July 20, 2009
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