CROCODILES - Sleep Forever

Second attempt for Californians Charles Rowell (guitar and synth) and Brandon Welchez (vocals).

Their previous album “Summer of Hate” wasn't, truth be told, anything special, and this “Sleep Forever” certainly won't go down as a landmark either… And yet, something is starting to shift, because the duo seem to have grown more aware of the possibilities of their garage-pop laced with psychedelic scents. The parade of references is, as ever, rich and engaging for anyone who wants to play the usual game: “What does this passage remind you of? And this riff?”.

A record for nostalgics, but with its feet firmly planted in the present, in a here-and-now that's always a little less green than what came before. The more you cling to memories, the more fatal this record could prove to your heart. A dreamy merry-go-round in which the grime of the fuzz only occasionally manages to derail the duo's celestial visions. “Mirrors” is an immediate weave of motorik and lines of joy. In short, it's Neu! (you're thinking of “Für Immer” too, right?) trying their hand at a radio-friendly turn.

Naturally, the acid-soaked California of the golden age is in their hearts (“Stoned to Death”, amid droning organ lines and freak-out scuffles; the commanding “Hollow Hollow Eyes”; a “Hearts Of Love” where the Jesus and Mary Chain show their boundless love for the Beach Boys), but there's more besides, like the dreamlike lullaby of “Girl in Black” or the title track, where Panda Bear takes a reconnaissance trip through the magical universe of the earliest Pink Floyd. The lo-fi patina immerses everything in an alien, distant, diaphanous dimension. The same synthetic pulses of “All My Hate And My Hexes Are For You” benefit from this, bringing down the curtain on Spacemen 3-esque accents.

Rather nice and entirely skippable. You be the judge…

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03/10/2010