Love Crystals

Change Of Melody

Written by: BV on 06/10/2013 19:13:02

Love Crystals are hardly a new name to my ears. Having seen them support Syreregn on more than one occasion, whilst eagerly awaiting some kind of release from them has given me some kind of knowledge of them. – Or so I thought. It’s been a while since I last updated myself on the band’s exploits and in the meantime it seems they have switched from a slightly funky, bluesy jam-rock type of thing to a more straightforward indie-rock outfit. With “Change of Melody”, their debut album, the influences from various Britpop acts, older bluesy stuff and contemporary acts seem to meld together to form a somewhat confused, yet adequately satisfying debut.

In fact, album opener “Mama Tell A Story” comes off as strangely vibrant with its upbeat guitar melody that chimes with a somewhat liquid, yet edgy sound to it. The vocal work of Kevin Hansen is decent as he has a quite characteristic voice but I get the feeling that this particular voice might also be one that could easily spawn a love/hate relationship. The easily fathomable melody of “Mama Tell A Story”, coupled with the strangely liquid yet sharp guitar sound seems to be the foundation for the remainder of the album.

This is particularly evident on the somewhat melancholic title track, as the silent opening with a simplistic guitar melody line leads in to a build-up that essentially results in a somewhat more dynamic song-structure that never quite reaches the climax it seems to promise. On this track however, my aforementioned positive attitude towards the vocals seems to lingering a bit as they sound a bit off here and there. This, coupled with the somewhat jagged backing-vocals tends to become a slight point of irritation for me towards the end of the track, effectively making me feel that Love Crystals are far more at home on the instrumental side than on the vocal work.

With “The Snow”, the repetitive and almost droning intro seems to mark an attempt at differentiating the otherwise quite uniform tracks from one another. The attempt is rather successful, as the heavy-hitting chorus of the song bears the mark of a memorable track whilst the verse eventually develops into a slightly funkier version of the initial intro drone. Whilst the vocals could still use some work, they do come off as significantly better on this track – leaving me to believe that there is some potential hidden here. That impression does not get any smaller, when you dig deeper into the layers of the instrumental side where Mikkel Deleuran and Mikkel Moseholm are laying down a seriously solid foundation for the two guitarists, Kevin Hansen and Jacob Midtgaard, to really unfold the breadth of their skills.

To sum up, there is definitely some potential here even though Love Crystals still seem to be searching for a sound they can truly call their own. If the vocal work improves and the songs get slightly more varied, Love Crystals could in fact be quite the interesting band. We’ll see how they develop.

Download: The Snow, Mama Tell a Story, Only a Fool
For The Fans Of: Joy Division, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Pixies
Listen: facebook.com

Release Date 27.06.2013
Self-released


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