CRYSTAL STILTS: IN LOVE WITH OBLIVION

[rating: 4.5]

Crystal Stilts: In Love With Oblivion

Label: Slumberland Records

Release Date: April 12, 2011

In Love with Oblivion is a lo-fi Brooklyn shoe-gaze garage rock album, every bit as potent as their debut, sounding less like Joy Division and more like a backyard acid trip; heavier on atmosphere, hotdogging the bands ultra-tight cohesion and aggrandizing the cult following of Brad Hargett’s tone-wary, reverb drenched bass voice.  So what is the deal with that voice? Either you love it or hate it. We, obviously, love it.  Take Ian Curtis of Joy Division or Paul Banks of Interpol, mix in some of The Velvet Underground and Jim Morrissey, and then lock them in a far away echo chamber drenched in reverb, and you have Brad Hargett. If you still don’t think any of that sounds like a bad combo, read on.

For a second album, Crystal Stilts succeed in stretching their noise pop schtick farther than their 2008 debut to create an even larger, darker,more  atmospheric record.  With leering and brash psychedelic organ swells, noisy guitars, sinister rockabilly riffs, and the echoy distance Hargett places between the instrumentation and the listener –  this is sinister American pop at it’s best, from a band that has the songwriting chops to pull it off. Their song craft is a force to be reckoned with here;  full of elliptical verses, scholarly pop savvy and an experimental energy that keeps the entire album fresh and effortless. From the stampeding instrumental opening track “Sycamore Tree”, to the more menacing but even more expansive “Half a Moon” , these are colossal songs occupying a vast sonic landscape for the listener to get lost in, forget who they are and fall in love with oblivion.