National Music Reviews
Crystal Stilts
Nature Noir
Sacred Bones
Street: 09.17
Crystal Stilts = Beat Happening + The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts are a tough band to pin down. At various times, they’ve used post-punk, psychedelic garage rock and indie pop jangle, often in the same song. They meld all of that together here, in this subtly focused and emotionally driven album, their first full-length release with Sacred Bones and their third overall. Brad Hargett’s deadpan baritone carves a path in the opening track, “Spirit In Front Of Me,” which you should follow through the album’s genre twists across a lush, psych-sonic minefield that delivers you to the gorgeous string build up of “Phases Forever.” Nature Noir is a retrofitted future rock n’ roll album, beautifully crafted from start to finish. –Christian Schultz