Review Summary: Spanning from lulling alternative ballads to noisy folk rock with shoegaze overtones, Creepoid's sophomore release does not disappoint.
An apt way to describe the sound on Philadelphia-based quartet’s self-titled sophomore release,
Creepoid, is a noisy, hybrid basement jam session of Deerhunter, Nirvana, and Interpol, with a drunken Thom Yorke at the mic. As bizarre as that may sound, these extraneous influences are not at the forefront. Creepoid take a more gentle approach, soothing you with lush atmospheres and crooning atop wistful acoustic guitar chords and shoegaze overtones. It’s this omnipresent mood that makes
Creepoid so appealing. None of the songs are outright catchy, nor are they purely noise. Rather, they drift within the ambiguous scope of lulling alternative ballads and noisy folk rock. The Interpol-esque “Gout” is the closest thing here to a straight-up rocker, mainly due to Patrick Troxell’s energetic drumming, but even then the serene background ambience eases your mind into a calming, tranquil state. “Tired Eyes” is the only time the album fully enters noise territory, with a wonderful acoustic build-up fit with trumpet and vocal harmonies, transforming itself halfway through into a loud, abrasive, yet wholly somber song before the noise fades out until the song’s final seconds.
Curiously, the subtleties of
Creepoid are what stand out the most: the tender female vocals of “Vulgar,” the soft reverb of the guitars, the perfectly placed acoustic slow-burner “Stay Inside” as the album’s centerpiece. The music can be illustrated as an enigmatic breeze that flows through your soul, numbing everything in its path with an entrancing aura of radiant fuzz, while the contrast between the male and female harmonies soaring above lulls you into a dreamy state of euphoria. Pretentious metaphors aside,
Creepoid is melodic but never cheesy; quiet but never boring. The only faults would be that the longer tracks tend to drag, and an overall lack of experimentation; but at the risk of sacrificing their authenticity, Creepoid chose the more conservative approach likely to their benefit. It’s appropriate that the band formed during a snowstorm. Call it coincidence, call it fate, but Creepoid are a pristine example of four cohesive, unified minds creating art.
Recommended Tracks:
➢ Nadua
➢ Sunday
➢ Stay Inside
➢ Tired Eyes
➢ Vulgar
