You might already seen me gushing over Gold Cage’s excellent single “Repeater Kember” in a previous post. Well, the rest of their debut album Social Crutch is out now and it’s pretty darn good.
I find most music in the world can fit into three categories in regards to how it commands the listener’s attention. Some music demands your whole attention by being bold, explicit, and in your face. There is other music that does not command much attention all, fading into the background, removing silence but doing much in the way of manipulating the listener’s focus. There is a third category of music that does not so much as loudly proclaim a message, but instead works to draw out the introspection from the listener and thus creates a very active experience. To me, this is the power of Social Crutch.
If you told me to describe Social Crutch in one word, the word I would use is space. Not outer space, but rather space in between. The expansive space evoked by the record’s reverberating sound, texturized by the warbling hiss of tape loops. The space in between each strike of the drums on slower tracks like “What is Left”. The space created by the guitar riffs that repeat on one note or spread them far away from each other, allowing the listener to hang on intake the full impact of the sound . There is also space that appears to exist in between both vocalists. When together on a track it sometimes seems as if they’re not in the same room. There’s a feeling conveyed of being alone and separated. This impact is most potent on “Harshmellow”, where in the “I’ll always be there, you know I’ll be there” call-and-response refrain, Monica Gamboa-Katz further into the background, suggesting that this “there” is not here and nor will it ever be. It can be speculated that this there is perhaps the somewhere else Cole Devine wishes to be in the previous track, “Spaghettify”.
Whether both singers appear on the same track or not, the vocals give a lot of power to the album, without themselves being powerful in the traditional sense. Words are sometimes hard to make out, as if the singers are looking down at their shoes or off into the distance. It is the sound and emotion, however, conveyed by these voices, that can creates moving feelings of dejection and tired frustration without us needing to hear and understand exactly what is being said. As a listener can hear what you want to hear and you can feel what you feel within the songs. The space created in the sound, gives room for you to bring your own experiences and emotions inside. It did for me at least, and that’s part of why I think this album is so special.
Listen to Social Crutch below and purchase the album here if you feel so inclined.