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CMJ New Music Exclusive Review
Cranes have managed to come up with a sound that even in these eclectic times stands apart: strange, Angelo Badalamenti-like harmonies punctuated with Frank Black-like guitar blasts, and a singer whose little-girl voice makes Julee Cruise sound like Ozzy Osbourne. Listening to Loved, their third album, you get a feeling that siblings and band founders James and Alison Shaw are more than a little whacked out ("Where am I?" Alison cries/sings repeatedly on "Lilies," one of the best tracks.) But as allusive and eerie as Cranes may be, they still manage to avoid being merely pretentious, which is no mean feat, mainly because as distinctive as their sound is, they still manage to write songs in a variety of musical styles. Loved veers from the countryish "Beautiful Friend" to a nearly industrial sound on the confused "Lilies," while the dialogue between twanging guitars and Alison's crazed vocals carries songs like "Bewildered" and "In The Night" With "Paris And Rome" the Shaws venture a bit into U2 territory to explore contemporary Continental anxiety, but the mixture of driving rhythms and shifting harmonies is up to the tastk. How Gothic are Cranes? If they'd had tape decks in Gormenghast Castle, this is probably what they'd have listened to.
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