Cranes

Album Review

Continuing to explore the generally subtler side of their music in a new century, Alison and Jim Shaw extend their increasing interest in electronic music on 2008's self-titled effort, as was readily heard on Particles & Waves, into an even more refined approach. Keyboards are ultimately the lead instrument throughout much of the album, which in combination with Jim's drumming still holding a sense of restrained, looming power, and Alison's familiar vocals now sweeter than they have yet been, create something close to a new Cranes sound altogether. It's certainly no radical reinvention — piano has been a lead instrument for Cranes as far back as "Tomorrow's Tears" in 1991 — but as a steady evolution, hearing the near-Beach Boys haze and swirl of the arrangement on "Worlds" and the sense of hidden depths on "Collecting Stones," it's a quite striking blend of past and present. It's not that guitars have completely disappeared, certainly, but often they are presented as extra shading or a sudden alteration of a performance. "Wonderful Things" is perhaps the most classically Cranes song in the older vein, but in a calmer mode, the guitars providing rhythm more than anything else. Elsewhere, "Feathers" is almost a post-punk tribute of sorts, thanks not only to the guitar but the very New Order-like bass, while "Move Along" is another standout on a fine album.