With a warm uplift in mood felt on Forever, Cranes return two years on continuing that trajectory. It arrives along with a musical shift in tone that firmly positions them within the 90s Dream Pop sound. Taking on a Shoegazing guitar aesthetic and shedding the shades of Industrial and darkness that followed them before, one can hear their established song writing style taking on new ideas but mostly leaning on thick acoustic chord strumming and hazy lead guitars that paint dreamy waves of bendy reverberating noise over top. Its charming in these particular strides.
Opening with Shining Road once can hear a percussive distinction that crops up a few times over. Its one of these musical ideas where the direction just feels different. With an injection of lively drums, fit for the times, Cranes offer something that doesn't exactly build on the sound they have forged. Where they get it right is with the dreary guitar haze that washes over a handful of tracks. The song Beautiful Friend is an underwhelming cross of the two. The following Bewildered however gets it spot on.
Lilies and Loved are two tracks leaning into their darker past with crowded noise and gristly stiff guitar licks to stir a little menace and unease among an otherwise warm record. Cranes's music does however still linger in that strange place I can only describe as limbo, with Shaw continuing her roll as the voice of innocence adjacent to danger. Its the Shoegazing guitar that embellished this record with a rewarding new direction. I hope to hear more of that lushness on the next outing.
Rating: 6/10