For many artists ploughing a rock and indie furrow, music is something that uses weight and impact to be effective, a sonic punch to leave an indelible mark on the listener’s consciousness. I’m not saying that this new one from Crime Spree In Candyland doesn’t put those elements to work, it is just that in Walking Through Walls Vol. 2, they use them in more supple and subtle ways.
The track runs on more hushed and hazy sounds, riffs that shimmer and chime, unfussy and effective beats, and vocals that seem to further soften the song’s edges. And when they opt to put their foot on the gas, it is to evoke additional sonics that feel more like breaking glass rather than punching walls.
The result is a sound that seems to cocoon the listener rather than confront them, offers gentle pop grooves rather than cliched rock moves, embraces melody rather than muscle and looks to a better future for mainstream music whilst cleverly referencing the golden age of shoegaze past.
Throw in a masterful dynamic ebb and flow, one that doesn’t engage with the musical extremes but moves enough to keep the requirements of atmosphere and anticipation fed, and some intriguing lyrics, and you have a song that does some wonderful things. And does them gracefully, with panache and a slight air of pathos.
There is a magical sweet spot, for me at least, where rock’s bravado is consumed by dream-pop soundscapes and where indie swagger calms down and coalesces into more accessible forms. It is here, in the sonic edgelands, the liminal musical fringes, that you find Crime Spree in Candyland and, indeed, this latest single.
