Review Summary: CC2 is just the kind of sophomore release you want to see from an artist, with Glass and Kath finding new grounds for their music while still sounding like a Crystal Castles album.
Crystal Castles seems to be a pretty fitting name for the duo. When Alice Glass and her husky producer Ethan Kath made their self-titled debut, you’d think they were inspired by the 1983 arcade game sharing the same name. The whole album sounds like a Nintendo or a Master System, you really can’t be blamed. Even though their name’s association with 80’s video games is coincidental (it was actually inspired by a He-Man spin-off’s theme song), it ended up being a great label for the type of sound they played at the time.
Two years later, the Toronto-based electronic team has released their follow-up, an album you’ll notice also shares the band’s name. Interestingly, the name also fits like a glove with the type of music they play, but now for different reasons.
Crystal Castles II isn’t the same chip-tune, 8-bit album they debuted with. It’s really an improvement of the group’s sound, carving out a more unique style and lasting substance.
Of course, you still have your noise jams like “Doe Deer” and “Fainting Spells”, but this sophomore record experiments a bit more in both presentation and execution, and in the right direction too. Crystal Castles’ debut certainly was experimental, but here you can see the duo branching out into new playing styles instead of simply sounding like a video game. One of the most mentionable is the more soothing, gentler sort, with some tracks accompanied by surprisingly gorgeous clear vocals from Glass. “Celestica” and “Suffocation” can be relaxed to just as much as you can dance to them, with the former having a fist-pumping club beat that never spoils the dreamy chorus, and the latter balancing vibrant, reverberating choruses with simpler, gentler verses. Alongside those songs you can find similar hybrids having more traditional CC attitude, including “Baptism” and “Intimate”. The moods of each song diverge well, having impartial variance and consistency. Amidst redefinition of their sound, they manage to keep fans of their punky, noisy debut satisfied.
In addition to making a sturdier album overall, Crystal Castles sees Alice Glass largely improve her singing. Where the first
Crystal Castles saw Glass shouting in the most rackety, distorted way possible,
CC2 sees her more controlled, audible and, well, feminine. With the exception of “Doe Deer”, she does more shouting (“Baptism”), crooning (“Suffocation”) and ordinary singing (“Empathy”) than cacophonous screams. The variance with her vocals is admirable, which, alongside numerous samples, permeates this album with more life and effort.
Vocals alone aren't what makes
Crystal Castles II so much more mature than 2008’s recording. Production has vastly improved courtesy of Ethan Kath, having a much wider spectrum of sounds that surpasses that of their debut’s glitch-fest. They still sound like a video game in places, such as the fuzzy bass of “Suffocation” or the light-hearted bleeps found on “Baptism”, but there's sundry other sounds that reduce the kitschy vibe to a minimum. “Celestica” is a graceful song carrying a cold wind through the chorus and verses paired with Glass’ vocals, with “Suffocation” doing basically the same thing. On a more hostile note, “Vietnam” is a gloomy and dark piece with interestingly-mixed samples for the vocals and shadowy undertones looming just beneath. It's nice to see some more interesting takes on their sound like these, which are just a few of the improvements Crystal Castles have made with this follow-up.
With that said, it’s safe to say
Crystal Castles II does a lot of things right. Sure, there are a couple songs that just don’t deliver as much, like “Fainting Spells”, “Doe Deer” and “Birds”, but these can easily be overlooked since they’re all adjacent to some of the album’s better songs anyway. The electronic duo further defines their sound with this sophomore release. This is how the band’s name still works as the album’s: instead of sounding like the video game Crystal Castles, this record sort of embodies the feeling of actually being in a crystal castle, with a sparkly, reverberating and gleaming atmosphere like seeing walls of ice. It’s a unique electronic dance album that’s sharper and more polished;
CC2 is just the kind of sophomore album you want to see from an artist, with Glass and Kath finding new grounds for their music while still sounding like a Crystal Castles album.
