Altsounds - Crocodiles - Summer of Hate [Album]

Much of the buzz that surrounded Crocodiles supposed arrival on the ‘no-fi’ scene was down to one of its major players, No Age. The LA Sub Poppers made enough of a noise about the San Diego based duo that every man and his blog were pretty snappy in coming down from their Crystal Stilts to find out more about the latest band making Wavves on the interweb. Many who subsequently found their way to one of Crocodiles’ live shows reported that the band were an all round let down, disappointing both sonically and personably, as they apparently strutted around with an air of self importance, acting more like tools than cool.

Of course this could be mere internet tattletale, and either way it shouldn’t really be considered when listening to their debut album, 'Summer of Hate'. What should be considered is that it’s very much an album of now, and of the lower-than-lo-fi approach that so many bands have been adopting of late, particularly in the US and particularly in Brooklyn where wannabe rock stars obviously far outweigh music studios, but not cheap 4-tracks. You need to consider this because it’s unlikely you will take to 'Summer of Hate' if you have a love for mixing desks that run the length of a room.

In truth, although Summer of Hate may be lo-fi, it never really descends into no-fi. Many of the tracks have a much cleaner sound than many of their contemporaries’ efforts, with categorization of noise-rock being greatly misplaced. However, overcoming the hype, gossip about their personas and lazy labelling is not Crocodiles’ biggest problem. What is their biggest problem, is that their best track is one that was largely written by someone else - not that many of the other tracks don’t evoke a sense of others’ work; “Soft Skull (In My Room)” sounds like Duran Duran if they really were wild boys, “Flash of Light” sounds like a karaoke version of Goldfrapp, and the title track is triple distilled Spiritualized. The real act of plagiarism though is “I Wanna Kill”, which is practically just a renamed cover of “Head On” by Jesus & The Mary Chain, which means it’s also therefore undeniably brilliant. As good as some other moments are on 'Summer of Hate', and close second “Sleeping With The Lord” is particularly fantastic, Crocodiles never quite reach the direct brilliance of that track, often merely hinting at how good they could have been had they shown less hocus and more focus. I say this because the overriding feeling surrounding Crocodiles’ debut is that many of the songs sound like hoaxes; tricks that would have us believe this band are someone else on each track. And whilst their slight-of-band is usually performed well, in fact maybe because it is often performed so well, you are left wondering who Crocodiles really are behind those tears.

Track List:
01. Screaming Chrome
02. I Wanna Kill
03. Soft Skull (In My Room)
04. Here Comes The Sky
05. Refuse Angels
06. Flash Of Light
07. Sleeping With The Lord
08. Summer Of Hate
09. Young Drugs