Review Summary: You're still the one who makes me feel much taller than you are
It is a noxious bliss. When I first considered that Crystal Castles goaded their own success from the start with an awfully-named singer Alice Glass belting out moan-induced lyrics above a melancholy synth and a typical dance beat and had still sounded this good, I couldn't help but repeat "Baptism" and "Suffocation" to a fault. To even consider that Crystal Castles is one of the most conspicuous groups to experiment with the so-called "8-bit Nintendo sound," it would be stupid to think that they don't make as many enemies as they do listeners. We're given a DIY production on their debut that appeared to sample and sound straight out of The Little Mermaid on Game Boy, and then two years later they drop a peerless lo-fi of a witch house electronic record that boasted an abrasive front and a melancholy backdrop; a sequel that was sentimental and condoned to appear worthy of being played on a rave floor.
Think hard now. Remember how Lords of Acid had sex and getting high as the pinnacle themes of every one of their drug-induced rave beats? Yeah me neither, because I was f*cking two years old at the time and there wasn't an internet to help underground electronic bands find their listeners. This is why Crystal Castles is the modern throwback to everything I missed out on for not being born a decade earlier, however avoiding the vapid "sex and drugs" attunement in favor of alluding to melancholy love to abuse, fear, and gender confusion. All the while they maintain a distorted calm throughout the tracks. That's what makes this so great. Of course, then there is the lone case of “Doe Deer" where they essentially blast beat your ears with a string of indecipherable and yet somehow innate screaming over a repeating two second melody. This could be to act as a reverse 'eye of the storm' between "Celestica" and "Baptism," to further accentuate the latter's f*cking brilliant chorus, something that should have warranted even further success to the group.
One of the larger quarrels I've held against "Vietnam" in particular is how ***ing annoying it is to overuse a string of pitch-altering tones, but after the first 90 seconds it brilliantly blossoms into a state of bell ridden tranquility. There are no overwhelming climaxes or climactic moments that are meant to take the focal point of Crystal Castles II, yet Ethan Kath and Alice Glass' sentimental attitude gives their music a consistent feeling of elation as if it is a prerogative skill they both possess.
Of course they had to cement their status among their peers by including a Sigur Ros sample in the "Inni mér syngur vitleysingur," and by featuring Robert Smith of The Cure in the apt standout "Not in Love." It then works tenfold with their transition away from their self-branding of video game culture into more current ambient and IDM. It is not really anything like ambient or IDM, true, but this is why their development from to their debut to their sequel is so meaningful, because it shows their maturation as artists and the increase in the quality of their music. Note the last three tracks where, in one fell swoop, the "Not in Love/Intimate" combo plays as a self-deprecating set of repressed loves (and dually like a remembrance I particularly had in the tune of Pokémon Blue's eerie Lavender Town.) Then "I Am Made of Chalk" fades the album into an underwater hell like a convoluted hash of Aphex Twin's earlier works and dark ambiance. It's a sadness that plays from the start of "Fainting Spells," and echoes beautifully throughout with moments of electronic aggression and grab its listeners and grounds them.
