Chances are, if you follow indie music, you’ve heard of Crystal Antlers. Last year this California outfit dropped a debut EP to pretty much unilateral critical acclaim. Now, with their debut record, Tentacles, Crystal Antlers have attempt to keep the proverbial wheels spinning. Whether or not they have succeeded is debatable; while Tentacles continues the band’s trademark sound, and manages to pull off handful of thoroughly enjoyable cuts, the album as a whole fails to impress quite as much as last year’s EP.
When it comes down to it, Tentacles just doesn’t deliver the raw power, emotion and intelligent songwriting that put Crystal Antlers in the spotlight. The fist half of the record is comprised of all the sonic goodness that you’d expect from their EP's followup. Unfortunately, the second half of the album feels a tad unexciting, bland and dragged out.
Album opener “Painless Sleep” acts as an instrumental intro to the album and is easily one of the highlights. Beginning with a lone organ riff that repeats through the entirety of the song, the band slowly adds more and more instruments into the mix. First, bass and light percussion add flavor and depth to the high pitched organ, and shortly thereafter, distorted guitar and a driving drum beat punctuate the song resulting in a scramble of noise, creating a perfect opener.
Crystal Antlers are experts in crafting magnificent bridges. The otherwise boring track “Dust” redeems itself, if only for a few seconds, with its bridge. Consisting of a catchy organ part played between loud guitar chords and drums at the 0:48 mark and again at 1:59, the short bridge demonstrates the importance of the organ’s inclusion in Crystal Antlers’ music. The trend continues with standout track “Andrew” which has another short bridge near the close that, despite the song’s overall quality, again becomes an instant highlight. Beginning near the 2:16 mark, the band lays off the fast paced noisy garage rock for a breather. A light drum beat keeps rhythm beneath a few fancy flourishes from the instruments including a particularly nice little bass groove. The respite doesn’t last long as the band quickly returns to its signature style to finish the song off with a bang.
The little ditty, “Tentacles” sounds like a faster, heavier, noisier version of a Deep Purple jam. The song is one of the most fun songs on the record despite, or perhaps as a result of, it being full of tempo and pacing changes. Regrettably, the album fails to deliver past this point. What follows is a series of drawn out (for their size), repetitious and generally tiresome cuts that drags the otherwise stellar record down into the land of mediocrity.
In the end, Crystal Antlers would have been better off if they had cut down Tentacles to EP length, keeping only the first half of the album. Together with the 2008 EP, the opening set of tracks from Tentacles would create quite a solid catalog. Unfortunately, due to the second half of this record, the band may find itself in a difficult position (not unlike that of the Black Kids upon the release of Partie Traumatic) that ends up turning would-be fans away. The talent and inspiration are certainly there – I’m just hoping that Crystal Antlers will produce a record that doesn’t leave me with such mixed feelings next time.
Track List
1. Painless Sleep
2. Dust
3. Time Erased
4. Andrew
5. Vapor Trail
6. Tentacles
7. Until the Sun Dies (Part One)
8. Memorized
9. Glacier
10. Foot of the Mountain
11. Your Spears
12. Swollen Sky
13. Several Tongues
