Send "Crocodiles " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 You could practically hear a better record trying to crawl out of Crocodiles' 2009 debut, Summer of Hate. For all its barbed melodies and immersive murk, Hate was mired by a reverence for its influences-- the dark jangle pop of the Jesus and Mary Chain and Echo and the Bunnymen, mostly-- that bordered on mimeograph. Its songs were decently crafted, the production fittingly dank. But the record felt bored with itself, almost like it, too, wondered why they'd write the "Be My Baby" drumbeat or a "Darklands" guitar swirl into so many tunes. It all needed some sorting out.Enter James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco, who mans the boards here on Sleep Forever, Crocodiles' improved second go. With him, Ford brings in a slew of new instrumental textures and an update to the influences mainframe to go with the sharper songwriting. With Ford doing the sorting, the difference is immediately clear. Hate's dry heave has been replaced with a muggy churn that builds on Echo and company's own Crocodiles while working in more krautrock palpitations and a druggy Madchester-like bustle. It's brasher, fuller, woolier, with little shards of sound scraping against the speakers, laying on the much-needed grit. Next to this, Summer of Hate sounds like a demo. Expansive sound in place, Crocodiles bring the tunes to match. Opener "Mirrors" unfurls slowly, gracefully notching up the racket before sliding into its monstrous verses. The lurching "Stoned to Death" has a good char on it, while the title track just glows in amniotic warmth. But it's "Hearts of Love", with its bold glockenspiel-assisted melody, that's Sleep Forever's peak, a rollicking devotional that suggests the weary grandeur of Spiritualized with the Flaming Lips basher Steven Drozd on drums. Summer of Hate felt meek at times, content to retreat into its own shadow; Sleep Forever's many oversized melodies and all-embracing sound prove that these guys do a lot better taking a few steps into the light....full text |
| Contactmusic |
| On first listen, all that Sleep Forever by Crocodiles offers is lo-fi mess, but if you give it time and let it in - like you should with many great albums - it reveals itself as one of the most lovable psychedelic gems of the year. After an unnecessary minute of feedback build-up, track one (Mirrors) kicks off. It is the sort of song that Dinosaur Jr. have been trying to come up with for the last 15 years or so, full of echoing vocals and razor sharp guitars. It is perfect uplifting garage pop. Following on from this is Stoned to Death, which goes down a more 1960s influenced psych-rock path (think The Doors or The Velvet Underground; or if you are less familiar with that era of music think Beck's 2008 Modern Guilt album, a thinly veiled homage to the genre). Hollow Hollow Eyes again goes down this path, with spooky haunted house style organs added to the mix. It is a riveting and fun listen once you've learnt to understand its initial complexities. After a mid-album lull in the unnecessarily long Girl in Black, the album's title track Sleep Forever kicks off like a more guitar driven version of The Flaming Lips, with an incredibly anthemic chorus that just could not get any bigger if it tried....full text |
| Musicomh |
| Los Angeles has been the undisputed ruler of lo-fi leaning, Jesus And Mary Chain-loving, amp-fuzz guitar bands since around the middle of the last decade. For a lot of people the only act that 'mattered' from that scene is, of course, the dynamic-duo No Age, whose energetic teen-punk charisma won the hearts of so many LA hipsters. The legendary avant-DIY rock club The Smell proudly bears the cover of the band's Weirdo Rippers on its back wall. But there's also Mika Miko, HEALTH, The Mae Shi and Abe Vigoda - all bands who've made solid names for themselves within the City of Angels' insulated world of indie rock. So it seemed almost inevitable that LA's sneer would eventually trickle down south to San Diego, and sure enough, around 2007 quite a few bands started playing music like they grew up a few hours north. Anchored critically by the ever-divisive Wavves, people have slowly started talking about "the San Diego lo-fi scene" and have naturally made a connection to the much more fertile "Los Angeles lo-fi scene". But Crocodiles have been one of the few bands from the city to have the sound, spirit, and professionalism to make it out of the blog-buzz mire and into the world of label-released LPs and Rolling Stone write-ups. Their second record Sleep Forever has the band sounding ever more apart from their one-trick contemporaries. Sleep Forever has the band trying a number of styles while staying in one particular blanketing aesthetic, that being early '80s post-punk. They're sometimes gothy, like the blip-blooping, chintz-synth love-ode All My Hate and My Hexes Are For You, and sometimes they're noise-poppy, like on the buzz-sawing guitar attack on opener Mirrors, but most of the time they're just really, really hazy - coating every inch of their sound in warm layer of fuzz....full text |
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