Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles III | Aaron Sheehan

Aaron Sheehan takes a closer listen to electronic/experimental duo, Crystal Castles’ latest offering.Bursting onto the scene in 2008 with their self titled LP, Crystal Castles have carved out a niche for themselves as purveyors of intriguing electronica on the edges of the mainstream musical sphere.Despite the carefully constructed image and marketing, though, Alice Glass and Ethan Kath (as their parents know them) have never truly managed to break past the superficial side of their music. Both their 2008 debut and their 2010 follow up (rather originally titled Crystal Castles II) had a distinct feeling of bloat about them. As pleasant as many of the soundscapes were, it was difficult to appreciate them when so much of the albums felt repetitive and overly drawn out. As such, I entered into Crystal Castles III hoping to find that the duo had refined their craft, at least to some extent.As it happens, refinement is seemingly the name of the game in CC3, with the release clocking in at a sub-40 minute time; a direct contrast to the 50 plus minute running times of both previous LPs. It’s a minor point ultimately but it’s this sort of self awareness that sets a decent release from an average one, so credit must go to CC for managing to cut it back.Musically speaking, CC3 doesn’t exactly break new ground for the group. ‘Opener Plague’ sets a desolate but morbidly lively tone and this is kept up throughout. A good example of this is later track ‘Violent Youth’, which combines its child-like vocals with production which adds a notable sense of doom to the proceedings. Following track ‘Telepath’, while totally instrumental, sees Crystal Castles cross an up tempo beat with witch house-esque droning. Certainly, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility to hear it blasting out in your local nightclub, as unnerving as that might be.One of my own favourites is the already released track ‘Wrath of God’, which works as a cross section of Crystal Castles’ work; twinkly, booming, uplifting and claustrophobic at various stages, it remains one of the stand-out tracks on show. With that, ‘Plague’, ‘Affection’ and ‘Sad Eyes’ all present in the opening half of the album, CC3 definitely starts strongly and retains a similar pace throughout.While the album never really diverges from this electronic/witch house/glitch sound, the aforementioned tightness of it all benefits it as a package hugely. As minor as 10-15 minutes shaved off may sound, it’s the clear difference between this being overly long and it working as a neat collection of sounds. Album closer ‘Child I Will Hurt You’ is a fine example of this, with its 3 and a half minute running time allowing it to get its point across without overstaying its welcome.Despite the mostly excellent production, none of the music on show really has enough depth to it to really grab you. Personally, my ability to write half of this review while listening to it and yet garner nothing substantial about it was rather indicative of this.So, as pleasant as it is on a cold winter evening, Crystal Castles III lacks that ‘something’ which might push it into truly gold territory. Alice Glass’ minimalist vocals are a good example of this. While nice at times, they push the boundaries of ‘what’s the point?’ too often to be viewed as anything but an oddity in a sea of good production.It’s always possible, of course, that I’m just missing something. After all, Crystal Castles have always had a substantial image attached to them so perhaps seeing all of these performed live might elevate it above the background noise it regularly seems to pose as. That being said, it’s still interesting background noise and to criticise such electronica influenced dreamy pop music as being a bit minimalist or samey would be akin to criticising a zebra for being striped.           While those extra few hours in the editing room have paid dividends, it seems a few more are still needed in the recording studio to truly bring their potential out. A more compact EP would do them no harm but, for the moment, we can look forward to IV for more musical development. 7/10.