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Oct 9, 2013Nature Noir feels like it’s got a bit more substance and structure, a natural foundation under the otherworldly sheen.
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Sep 23, 2013'Sticks & Stones', 'Memory Room' and, oddly, the title track add slivers of graceful light to this bleak but captivating collection of noirish tales.
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Sep 17, 2013It’s intimidating at first, but once your eyes acclimatise, you’ll relish joining them in the shadows.
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Sep 16, 2013Nature Noir proves that Crystal Stilts aren't a one-trick band and it gives anyone who's been a fan up to this point an extremely compelling reason to follow them as they grow.
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UncutOct 31, 2013The songs are warmly hypnotic: pitch-perfect pop. [Dec 2013, p.66]
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Sep 30, 2013The first half of this album serves up to be a dynamite, nearly EP-of-the-year standard, if it was an EP. But, the whole album seems less focused and ideally not so much of an album but more a collection of tracks.
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Sep 16, 2013Nature Noir' is very much Crystal Stilts sticking to their well-trodden formula, conforming as they are, essentially, to their own trademark sounds. But it's also the sound of a band retaining the best of their identity: sharp melodies, steady drum fills and discordant synth still all underpin Brad's sleepy, monotonic vocals.
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Sep 17, 2013Nature Noir is nothing if not a well-crafted, whip-smart record, but it leaves me yearning for the days when the Stilts would put passion into trying to find the pulse. Or better yet, yearning for the days when the pulse may actually have existed.
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Sep 16, 2013Notably the first half of the album, it cements Nature Noir’s reputation as a genuinely rollicking take on psychedelic garage rock of a bygone era. When it doesn’t work, as on the second half of the album (minus the title track), it begs the question about whether the Stilts should have abandoned their visceral rock in the first place.
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Sep 16, 2013Crystal Stilts won’t be winning many new listeners with Nature Noir but that won’t matter to the band’s fanbase, as another album comparable to their previous work has been created, albeit with an improvement on the production side.
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Under The RadarSep 16, 2013There are a few genuine gems on the record, but you have to dig around for them amongst a lot of tracks that meander about, exulting in their own nostalgia without really going anywhere. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.88]