Waterford Crystal may be on the verge of closure, but there's no shortage of the sparkly stuff in modern music. New York's Crystal Stilts, a band who began life as a trio but expanded their ranks and their sound for the creation of this debut, join a long list acts prefixed with the precious mineral (most of them dreadful, it must be said). Crystal, it would seem, is the new black when it comes to indie hipness.
True to form, Crystal Stilts are as hip a band as you'll hear from the USA in 2009. As part of the developing 'nu-gaze' scene, the Brad Hargett-led band join the likes of the brilliant Pains of Being Pure at Heart and School of Seven Bells at the vanguard of the so-called movement, although on this evidence, they don't deserve to be in such illustrious company. Crystal Stilts undoubtedly draw from the same well of influences (The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground and particularly the nihilism of Joy Division) as both bands, but they're sorely lacking their ideas on advancement.
Yes, there are moments on 'Alight of Night' to be enjoyed - particularly the JAMC-does-Spector rock 'n' roll of 'Crystal Stilts', the loose, '60s garage beat of 'The Dazzled', and the giddy wooze of 'Verdant Gaze'. Mostly, however, their analogue-style production just swallows any distinguishing characteristics, covers them in an overbearing, fuzzy bile, and regurgitates them as droning, homogenous non-events; Hargett's vocals, both atonal and tuneless, only serve to further frustrate. It's listenable in small doses - but overall, this is Alight that flickers dimly, instead of shining vibrantly.
