Release Date: July 19, 2011
Only two albums into their young career, Crystal Antlers already hold a dubious distinction: after Touch and Go Records announced a massive downsizing in 2009, the band’s debut effort Tentacles will likely be the last new release for the venerable label. Which is a shame, considering how well they seemed to fit alongside some of Touch and Go’s most famous acts, including Shellac, Polvo and The Black Heart Procession.
Despite the lack of a proper label, the band has self-released their second album, Two-Way Mirror. Recorded in their hometown of Long Beach, Calif., the album seems a logical step forward for the band. But for ever moment of headway, the band seems to get a little too big for their britches, incorporating elements that can only be described as head-scratching.
For an album that strives for frenetic instrumentation and grating tonality, Two-Way Mirror is sometimes a surprisingly complacent collection of songs. Though tracks like “Knee Deep” and “Séance” sound feverish on the surface, there remains a sense of control that does the band’s admittedly intriguing sound a grand disservice. At its worst, the album resembles something like a blueprint, with skeletal tracks like “Way Out” and “Dog Days” doing little in the way of establishing the avant-garage sound the band seems to be looking for.
But then there are moments of a solace. “By The Sawkill,” the album’s best track, is an abrasive affront that kicks off with a Mars Volta-esque guitar riff before eventually settling into an extended and gloomy bridge, making for a roller coaster of sounds and textures.
“By The Sawkill” transitions smoothly into the title track, which features frontman Johnny Bell’s vocal qualities quite nicely. Like a brusquer version of TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Bell works mostly in wails and swoons. But where Adebimpe can often sound outright soulful in his approach, Bell sticks closely to the album’s punk rock groundwork.
When all the stars align, Bell’s voice is one of the Two-Way Mirrors’ greatest features. The album’s opener, “Jules’ Story,” is a perfect introductory track not only for the album, but also for Bell’s unique style. Unfortunately, what follows is hit or miss, both in terms of his vocal qualities and the album’s aesthetic.
To put it bluntly, Two-Way Mirrors suffers from multiple personality disorder. The album would work better if the rampant reverb and layers of distortion were the focal point. When the band attempts to incorporate elements of ’60s psychedelia (“Always Afraid”) and ’70s radio rock (“Dog Days”), their ambition gets the best of them.
In the case of the latter, Bell just doesn’t have the chops, vocally, to match the songs’ expansive melodies and structure. The rest of the band, from a musical standpoint, however, excels in stepping outside the box. In a way, “Dog Days” is indicative of the entire album: many well-intentioned elements coming together in a technically proficient fashion, but never quite reaching its desired effect.
Still, for an album that can, at times, feel meandrous and incoherent, the bright spots of promise point to a band that lacks anything but ambition. Simply put, Crystal Antlers still seem to be finding themselves, making Two-Way Mirror, at the very least, an engaging insight into the always-fascinating process of a harnessing a sound.
Crystal Antlers – Two-Way Mirror Tracklist:
- “Jules’ Story”
- “Séance”
- “Summer Solstice”
- “By The Sawkill”
- “Two-Way Mirror’
- “Way Out”
- “Fortune Telling”
- “Always Afraid”
- “Knee Deep”
- “Sun-Bleached”
- “Dog Days”
