Review Summary: An over long, under-produced musical romp through themes of depression and hating yourself that doesn't always seem like much effort was put in, but has moments where the effort was obviously focused.
Trying to explain Crywank to someone who doesn't know them is a much more difficult task than it first seemed to be. The hipster in me wants to consider them brilliant lo-fi emotionally raw art, but the objective critic in me wants to consider it a sad British guy with a guitar who can't properly mostly knows how to play it and enjoys open strings.
It should be obvious to discern from that statement that the real highlight of anything produced by Crywank is the lyrics. The vocalist sounds kinda ***e most of the time, moaning and voice cracks and flat singing abound, but if you listen to the lyrics, they're honestly quite heartbreaking. From songs like "Song for a guilty Sadist" to "Only Everybody Can Judge Me", the majority of the themes of this record deal with ideas of self-loathing and this idea that everyone is burdened by your existence, but in that sense no song quite hits the nail on the head quite like "Leech Boy", arguably the most self-destructive and depressing song on the LP. Needless to say this is not music you want to listen to while struggling with depression, but certainly an interesting listen if you have struggled with it.
Everybody loves a good sad song to cry to, but for the most part this record seems like sad music to hang yourself to, which I wanna make clear is not a good idea, nor one I advocate. This is easily the most depressing piece of music I have ever subjected myself to. Eighteen tracks of mostly low-quality guitar playing and sh*tty singing with fantastic lyrics.
In the end, my only advice for the musician is invest in proper recording hardware and learn to play your G*ddamn instrument.
If you can slog through the crappy musicality, it's worth it to appreciate the lyricism.
