The Crystal Stilts : 'Love is a Wave'
Riding on the crest of the surf-sounding resurgence, The Crystal Stilts’, ‘Love is a Wave’, is by no means a musical epiphany but remains a catchy and likeable single.
A Libertines-esque ‘Don’t Look Back into the Sun’ riff kicks things off but the core of the song is a lot darker, due in part to the minimal but audible bass, with shades of The Fall just about discernable.
The deep unpolished vocals of Brooklyn-based Brad Hargett have a reverb-soaked garage feel that ebb in and out of focus, creating a psychedelic and quite menacing haze, particularly when layered with church organ sounds.
The organ plays a more central role in B-side ‘Sugarbaby’ where comparisons to The Doors’ ‘L.A. Woman’ are hard to ignore. Lyrically, I’m not sure about the chorus, ‘Sugarbaby, you’re my baby, my Sugarbaby’, but the song again retains an aura of cool and manages to stay sinister but danceable at the same time.
Promotional material for the single claims that The Crystal Stilts have created ‘something entirely new and crucial for today’.
The problem is that the single sounds like so many great bands and brings together positive aspects of disparate genres making it difficult not to like it. I just don’t know how much or indeed whether they add to the musical pantheon – only time will tell.
Words: Alex Steingold
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