Photo by Erez Avissar
Although the Toronto electro-punks recently announced their split, Crystal Castles still made some of the decade’s best synth pop. Charting a course of abstract alienation, their staggering kinesis of bratty screaming and agile synth struck a binary between blissfulness and aggression, dystopia and catharsis, rebelliousness and vulnerability. Ethan Kath and Alice Glass leave behind a discography with more dimension than that of bands who have been around for twice as long, from brash gothic electro-pop to symphonic Nintendo reverie. Their songs have an amazing escapist quality: they do as well in stadiums as in headphones, but the effects are always as unpredictable as they are intriguing, a genre-defying mix of dark ideas drawn in breathtaking relief. Whether you’re a newcomer to their sound or a seasoned acolyte, here are ten of their best songs.
"Crimewave"
The first single from their debut album Crystal Castles was also a HEALTH song by the same title, one that Kath chopped and screwed into the sound of smoothly-jagged melancholy. “Crimewave” is the OG Crystal Castles song, a blippy banger that channels Kraftwerk and Daft Punk with it’s perfectly-soused autotune. Glass’ voice is so filtered its easy to overlook the fact that “Crimewave” has only five lines that are repeated over and over:
Eyes lit
I want short breaths
I found dark eye lids
Nice breasts
Like the summer into rough hands
"Suffocation"
“Suffocation”’s breathtaking shoegaze is so huge and disciplined, it swells as if to envelop a cityscape before shrinking down to accommodate vocals so gossamer that you can barely make them out as lyrics. The fact that Glass’ voice is so muffled and distorted suggests a chilling, tangerine nightmare: “I suffocate," she sings, “and promise me you won’t resuscitate."
"Alice Practice"
The bristling and bratty “Alice Practice” is a song that launched a thousand Sleigh Bells. Originally a demo of Alice Glass testing out a microphone, the track is a subterfuge of Ethan Kath’s signature keyboard gymnastics—one that suggests the frenzied catalog to come. According to lore, 500 copies of this limited-edition 7” sold out in 72 hours when they were released in 2006.
"Not In Love" [ft. Robert Smith]
A gorgeous standout from their second LP, “Not In Love” is a brilliant crossover song and Crystal Castles’ biggest commercial success. “Not In Love” is a cover of a 1983 single by Platinum Blonde that here features vocals from Robert Smith of the Cure. The song’s explosive, life-affirming chorus segues into Kath’s gentle interludes with triumphant precision, making it one of Crystal Castles' finest, most cathartic ballads.
"Vanished"
"Vanished" drives an echoey, boomeranging, headphones melody over samples from Van She’s "Sex City"—a paradoxically dystopian message enveloped in palpating, nu-rave warmth. (The ever-excellent “Baptism” is also worth listening to, as Glass channels Ladytron and the Knife's Karin Dreijer-Andersson in equal measure.)
"Affection"
An underrated standout from III, "Affection" has an uncharacteristically svelte, almost R&B influence—and beneath its urban undercurrent there lies what is unquestionably one of the greatest goth lyrics of all time: "Catch a moth hold it in my hand/ Crush it casually."
"Untrust Us"
"Untrust Us" is best understood by the music that frames it. The song’s glassy, wind-chime of a chorus comes from DFA 1979's "Dead Womb", which Crystal Castles dress in ascending synth lines and a driving, cyclic beat.
The song has an immediacy that has become Crystal Castles’ signature, and last year, it was covered beautifully by the Capital Children's Choir of London. Their goosebumps-inducing cover highlights the lush, singular dimension that made the original so enjoyable. The cover replaces the song’s synths and percussion with vocals and handclaps, arriving at a medley that's as powerful, moving, and immersive as the original.
"Plague"
“Plague” is a genuinely disarming song: like Crystal Castles’ finest cuts, it strikes a balance between intimate disturbia and the kind of universally-striking, anthemic melodicism that’s best encapsulated in Glass’ careening bark of “I AM THE PLAGUE."
"I Am Made of Chalk"
On “I Am Made of Chalk”, Glass's voice is fractured and infantilized by Kath's frenetic sampling, which lacerates an otherwise brash electro-ballad with woozy, unsettling aplomb. The distinctive production, here and elsewhere, comes from a keyboard modified with an Atari 5200 sound chip, which makes the mix sound aqueous and interstellar at the same time. And there’s sometime poignant about the voice that is trapped beneath the onslaught of noise—at one point, it sounds like a child screams “Mom." Even without discernable lyrics this is one of the saddest, creepiest songs Crystal Castles ever made.
"Celestica"
The driving ambiance of “Celestica” obviates a signature aspect of Crystal Castles' legacy: every song is a dance between comfort and fear. Depending on the track, Glass will either coo or bark; Kath will either smooth or disrupt. As a result, "Celestica" is more muted than some of Crystal Castles’ other fare (it’s an excellent counterpart to the gloriously punky "Doe Deer" that follows it on their second album) with an instrumental driven by Crystal Castles’ most notable House beat. In 2010, the song got a high-profile remix from Thurston Moore—a slow-burning take on a gorgeous, harmonious classic.