Goff's Pick of the Week- Alight of Night by the Crystal Stilts

A picture of a flower adorns the cover of the Crystal Stilts first album Alight of Night. The picture would be considered cliché and uninspired if not for the all black background, the whitewashed pedals, and the alien texture, and so to the Crystal Stilts. The Crystal Stilts are a pop band that tries its very hardest to pretend not to be a pop band. Underneath each song on Alight of Night, underneath a sea of fuzz and right behind those growled out vocals, lies buried pop songs that sound like they were taken smack out of the sixties. They are good pop songs too, “I Kissed a Girl” quality songs that would make Katy Perry and her pop contemporaries jealous. They range from upbeat numbers that make you want to clap your hands to softer songs that can catch the listener off guard with their arousing beauty.

The lyrics are delivered in a deadpan manner, think the Jesus and Mary Chain, and the whole album has sort of an old fashioned feel to it. At the same time thought they sound new, nobody would dare put that much distortion on top of a pop song during the sixties except perhaps The Velvet Underground. And that’s a little what the album sounds like, it’s like a reimagining of what rock might sound like fifty years ago if bands fifty years ago had had access to today’s sonic technology. But on top of that they don’t sound as imaginative as any of the previously mentioned bands, not as daring, or as experimental, but they come surprisingly close, which is more than a compliment when talking about bands of that caliber. What it comes down to is that they are sort of like if The Beatles during their very early pop years had had a wall of sonic swirls over every song, had the bass turned way up, and had delivered their lyrics like The Jesus and Mary Chain which as you may imagine results in a pretty interesting sound.

A few tracks stand out on the album, Shattered Shine, City at the bottom of the Sea, Crystal Stilts, and Prismatic Room are a few of my favorites. These songs succeed because of the ingenuity of the lyrics and the music. Those tracks blend well and are either upbeat toe tapers or slowed down more emotional tracks. The album contains a good mix of upbeat and softer songs which keeps the listener engaged. Overall the album is very gratifying, pure psych-pop that tantalizes the ear and begs to be listened to on repeat.