Crystal Castles

So much better with Robert Smith on the vocal.

wow I am very late to this party, "violent dreams" (with the stina nordenstam samples) is amazing.

assholes or not, their new album is seriously gorgeous and danceable. although it's not a great car album, had me in a trance while I should have been watching the road, had to turn it off!

It's awesome, and way better than that piss-poor Kanye album that's one all the awards.

But I find it odd yet predictable that the band REALLY caught on with the high-school crowd. My 14 year old sister adores the band, as do all her friends, and when they recently played here in Boulder (well I'm in Denver, but anwyay:) for NYE apparently the # of 17 year old girls was abhorring, according to friends who go to school up there. I guess they've got that perfect blend of great hooks and obvious attitude/image that the under 20 crowd really latches onto.

way to bring up kanye in a thread that has nothing t odo with him!

haha imo it was just such, such, such a better contender for album of the year. i didn't listen to an awful lot from 2010 but it rly struck me as the single-handed most solid album of the year entire... there's not one song that lacks any less luster than the one preceding or post.

When I saw them live at Nottingham Rock City last autumn, almost the entire audience was under 21. And sober. And ecstatic. Which made for a fantastic atmosphere.

new album is kinda ehhhh on first listen

all the sharp poke-y edges have been filed down and even when they try for abrasive (like "insulin") it just lacks bite. maybe it's the mixing/mastering this time around? either way, the songs don't seem to be there either.

I hate terms like this, but this is a grower. I still think (II) trumps their current discography - mostly due to the almost magical amount of variety in song atmospheres and structures - but if anything, I adore the focus of this album. It feels more like a narrative than anything that has preceded, with a lot of likening to Burial's work: The songs saturate in this ambiguous but very real universe of suffering/doom/gloom, in which Alice's vocals - incessantly obscured and yet audibly echoed, as if shouting from that iconic well in Silence of the Lambs - come across as a child's unheard cries. She's a woman, sure, but it's her resolve to stay in this range of unmatured innocence (with the sultriness of age evidenced in past albums, especially in certain bits of "Celestica") with her tone of voice that creates a completely unsexualized version of herself.... case in point, a child. Lyrical themes and especially the title of the last song provide this as well.

I like this album. I don't think it does a lot to really progress the band's sound - and if the next album were to attempt as little progression as this one did, I may lose some respect for the group - but what I appreciate is this cohesiveness, this assuredness in wants and confidence in what they're able to convey. I know this sounds kinda masturabatory, but I really see the future of this band existing in concept albums, singular concepts that are done with immeasurable success.

They're really going to have to surprise me with the next release, though, as I think happy pop they've covered with the first album. They can't possibly get any gloomier than this without losing that inherent danceability that makes them so charming. I really don't know what next they're going to tackle, and considering that I also consider this album to be something of a sort of Amnesiac to (II)'s Kid A, they might suffer naturally through a Hail to the Thief stage in which they attempt to reinvigorate their sound while not particularly providing evidence that this reinvigoration was something needed in the first place, or that which is being built upon was a more matured, confident version of it's current self.

One more thing: A lot of reviews of their first album likened them to the Knife, save for that Glass's vocals did something to humanize their whole atmosphere. The next album made a considerable effort to make Glass as much as an instrument - a loop, a sample - than a human. It's this album that I really think has entirely coalesced any differention between human and electronic. I'm not sure if these are themes they're going for, but it's exciting to me to see this gradual loss of humanity with every consecutive album. Maybe that's their next step? To place both band members in a big black box, with sound emitting from both but little physical differentiation between the two.

I also saw them live some weeks back. The show was OK, and it was really fun seeing the guys, but I can't remember half the night and not sure if it was any different from the first ten minutes. Khan was resolute in playing his instruments, gazing into seemingly nothing, and Glass crowd-surfed a bit but was otherwise a figurine.

Kelpolaris--way off the mark about their live show. The blinding glare of their (totally amazing) light show, for one, either rendered you sightless for a hot second or enhanced your high or something. Alie was way more than a figurine both times I've seen her. Also crowdsurfing despite inevitable gropage is pretty rad. The new album sounds totally boring to me. Unless my headphones sucked and I'm missing a lot of texture or something it sounded like a lot was missing from the tracks. Lack of play or imagination. I definitely prefer them live. Super fun.

*Alice

III has definitely clicked for me, and i quite like it. not as much as either I or II (especially not as much as II) but i like it.

My light show consisted of red, blue and white lights. They had the cover-art as a backdrop but otherwise it was a surprisingly boring concert. There was one particularly hilarious girl, though, who could perform the same dance move in anything over 30-second intervals.

OK, so I don't know if she did this at your (fellas) shows, but there was a particularly cool instance in which Alice was held up by the crowd while on her *knees*. As in, her body was upright and continuing to sing but the crowd held onto her bent legs in order to sustain such. Khan, I think his name is, was just very meditative and I thought the fact that he placed his synth on boxes of carrying equipment an odd but sorta interesting choice.

Otherwise, Glass just had one leg propped up on a speaker and shouted directly at the crowd. For a little too long. I've seen live shows and she did considerably less jumping around and all such I've seen in YouTube clips. They've stopped an incredibly number of times in Denver/Boulder, so maybe the thrill of novelty was wearing on them.

Fascination ends

That cover with Mr. Smith is currently wrapping up three years of my life on just the necessary note, so.

heard "affection" today in the brooks brothers store in downtown princeton

A month late but their set opening for Depeche in LA was great because they did NOT give a fuck. Or rather they did, by being exactly themselves and if the crowd didn't like it, fuck 'em. Great times.

Not in Love (album version) is one of the best songs ever recorded. Didn't love their most recent release -- it felt familiar, gratuitous almost -- but this band is a classic band.

Fun fact: Once i was in brooks brothers shopping for ties and they were playing Celestica.

are you sure it wasn't "affection"?

100% sure, 100% of the time. Guaranteed.™

as long as that's the one without the lead singer of the cure whose name escapes me at the moment

^gets it. The original version of not in love (w/ Alice Glass vocals) is infinitely better

I dont want to be all "I prefer the early stuff" but AIR WAR was as good as it got for me with these guys. Second album was ok, third one was rubbish.

'Not in Love' is good, I think after hearing the Platinum Blonde original kinda makes me wanna hear more power-stadium-pop mix ups by CC.

I'm thinking 'Surrender'

Alice has announced on Twitter that she is leaving the band.

http://twitter.com/ALICEGLASS

you are nothing without your robot car, poetry girl

this sucks, although i understand it. the most recent crystal castles album was good but felt redundant. the first two albums are classics of the late aughts.

this sucks, although i understand it. the most recent crystal castles album was good but felt redundant. the first two albums are classics of the late aughts.

― Treeship, Wednesday, October 8, 2014 8:26 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it feels like a shame, but then, successive releases would have likely continued this trend. so it's probably for the best. maybe her solo stuff won't suck?

and so castles made of crystal, fall into the sistal, eventuallistal

having fallen hard for III this week, so, i have just ordered I and II via amazon marketplace

total price incl. postage : £6.66

how more goth can you get.

happened to listen to crystal castles (ii) today. was reminded of what bullshit the robert smith version of "not in love" is.

used to be heavy on one of my pandora stations, a really good productivity music band iirc

classic band

even if they plagiarized posters or whatever

new album, guess no one cares anymore

Quite a journey from first to last post huh

Most recent album was pretty good. Alice Glass ep was even better.

Alice Glass has just posted more fully about Ethan Kath and why she left the band. Trigger warnings noted, this is not an easy read.

http://www.alice-glass.com/cc/

holy fuck that is horrible

this is really awful. I love the first two crystal castles albums but they won’t sound the same to me anymore. i was always a fan of her vocals. she seemed so powerful — sometimes frightening — i never would have imagined that this was the actual dynamic in that band.

Wow, what a tough read. Kudos to her for finally getting out from his manipulative, abusive grip and calling him out on it.

this is really awful. I love the first two crystal castles albums but they won’t sound the same to me anymore. i was always a fan of her vocals. she seemed so powerful — sometimes frightening — i never would have imagined that this was the actual dynamic in that band.

― Treeship, Tuesday, October 24, 2017 6:57 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this. Although we may have to have the good old bad-people-often-make-good-art-but-actually-let's-not-financially-support-this-fuck conversation.

Also, this story is out of the blue to me (and to this thread) but apparently it's not the first time she's spoken out - from the Crystal Castles Wikipedia page;

In early 2016, the band was included in the announced lineup for the 79 Cents event at SXSW, a concert showcase organized by Tumblr to highlight women's income disparity. Shortly after, this choice was criticized by former member Alice Glass:

As someone who knew Ethan Kath on a personal and professional level, it is my opinion that he is not an appropriate artist to be performing at a feminism-centric event.
— Alice Glass, in interview with The Verge

In reaction to this statement, the band was removed from the lineup.

didn't these guys use a woman with a black eye as an album cover once

can we change thread title to Crystal Castles (suck)

Idk “Black Panther” and the album version of “Not in Love” are amazing tracks

xp It was Madonna with a black eye, and they were sued by the artist for using it without his permission.

http://i51.tinypic.com/wmmqtf.jpg

It was pretty bad then, much worse with this context now.

I never really thought about the dude. My emotional investment in the band was based on loving the albums and being a fan of her as a vocalist, performer, and personality. So it’s an odd situation in terms of what to think of this material now.