Allan’s World Music

Crystal Castles - Self Titled Review
22 March 2008, Allan @ 7:58 pm

Crystal Castles are a band out of our very own Toronto and are definitely worth a mention as they took the internet by storm after their EPs and CDs leaked mixed in with their pretty good remixes. The hype seems to have died down a bit after the first week of their release but before I wanted to post about them, I had wanted to listen to the album carefully even if I did like a few tracks beforehand.

As is the case with tons of albums this year, everytime I really like a single..the album generally disappoints and ends up being quite average. I think after listening to Crystal Castles’ album for a little bit over a week, I really believe it isn’t as strong as I expected it was going to be. When I heard their singles on their myspace and wanted to dance their remix of Crimewave by Health, I thought the sky was the limit.

I first heard about Crystal Castles from both a friend talking about them and receiving an e-mail promoting Health, the band they were touring with. The following day I saw an article in Now! Magazine which I then decided to pick up even if I dislike the sex-ad filled newspaper with subpar reviews.

Anyway when first listening to the album, it was filled with familiar songs of their myspace so it wasn’t hard to listen to at all. One thing I would like to point out is their range. The amount of sounds they display is actually quite wide but I think the most disappointing part to me is that there were more video games sounds then tracks you can dance to. Granted that might not be their purpose but in a interview where they claim their attempt was to “annoy people” they did exactly that on some tracks. I think the real negative for me is that with all the sounds they display it doesn’t really gel that well. With a big number of 16 tracks there were also quite a few misses.

It’s still a pretty good album with some pretty good tracks. My favorite track is “Good Times” which is more a dance track and is actually much more simpler then their noise/video game inspired tracks. With that said, it’s difficult to go through the album as a complete whole unless I want my brain to fry.

Rating: 4 out of 5. Good but not great.

Good Time by Crystal Castles

Courtship Date by Crystal Castles

Tell Me What To Swallow by Crystal Castles

Buy Crystal Castles release at Insound/CD Universe/

9 Comments for “Crystal Castles - Self Titled Review”

1. Anonymous — March 24, 2008 @ 1:13 am
   

   your obviously not a cc fan

   i could listen to there album 1000 times over
   and my head feels better than before

   its amazing

2. Allan — March 24, 2008 @ 2:02 am
   

   Fair assessment. I’ll stick with Justice/Simian Mobile Disco.

3. Tom — March 25, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
   

   NO - good time is the worst one on the album!

4. Allan — March 25, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
   

   I can see some people thinking that. It is kind of different from the other tracks.

5. High Voltage — March 25, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
   

   if you’re in NYC, check out the official afterparty/DJ set for their sold out show at Mercury Lounge.

   RSVP to get in for free…

   http://www.going.com/hvcrystalcastles

6. Garfwog — April 7, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
   

   Good Time is actually a really really bad one. i don’t know if it was Alice singing that small little voice track, but seriously, why wasn’t there more? why not record a bit more vocals and then loop it? it really gets annoying. and this is coming from a hardcore CC fan. the best song on the album is Black Panther.

7. Allan — April 7, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
   

   It’s not that bad of a track…

   Simplicity was what I enjoyed more after going through the whole album.

8. Melissa — April 21, 2008 @ 10:46 am
   

   I liked the WHOLE album:)

9. jon jon — May 7, 2008 @ 6:25 am
   

   everyone has their faves. let them. if you think black panther is the best. great….i think good times is a fun track. great. stop being hipster elitist and just enjoy!

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