Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Posted by AlMachine on Thursday, April 17, 2008

As cool cats go, Crystal Castles may only be usurped by Top Cat and Henry’s Cat. But just like the children’s favourites, looking the business and walking the walk doesn’t necessarily mean you can actually write a tune. Apart from Top at who was a master of all he turned his hand to.

And so it is that Crystal Castle’s eponymous debut is choc-a-bloc with dirty glitches and retro-gaming grooves, but without any formidable songs to build them around.
You can look as moody as you want in your promo shots and hide underneath a battered hood for all eternity, but without anything more substantial you’ll always struggle to cut the mustard.

The ghostly echo of Vanished and retro-futurism of Crimewave will soundtrack the coolest of Hoxton hairdressing salons, but they are let down by too much meandering through the rest of the album.

At more than 50 minutes, Crystal Castles debut is too long and could easily be stripped of its unnecessary filler.
Somewhere buried in here is a decent record but, like waiting for a Spectrum game to load, will anyone be bothered to hang around long enough to find out?

Andy Robbins

4/10

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