The Crookes - Hold Fast

Release Date: June 2012

The Crookes is a band from Sheffield (UK) formed in 2008, their style follows a popular trend of Alternative Rock / Indie / Pop mix which we are all being bombarded with since The Killers made it to the top. 

Most of us are kind of tired of this theme, I am not. I live in England, this theme comes from the core of this hipster era, this is what rolled up sleeves and black jackets was for the first trends of commercial Rock n' Roll.

This recent, upcoming band has a style that takes us back to the 60`s, and I like that they have that Beatles, Rolling Stones kick in their high pitch vocals with that scratchy old radio background noise that we hear when we see those videos in black and white. 

(IndieFerencia)

Hold Fast, is The Crookes first album and it comes with a mix of sounds that remind us of bands like Editors, Two Door Cinema Club, The Smiths and The Beatles. 

The way I judge an album is by looking first at the variety of their music; 10 songs with quite different sounds, but none of the songs will make me change the mood too drastically. You know when you can't listen to a full album because one song suddenly changes the whole atmosphere? (It always happens to me when I listen to Grizzly Bear) Guess what? They don't have that. 

Some songs are quite slow, but your feet will keep bouncing up and down while you read or write something. Some songs like Afterglow or Maybe in the Dark will make you shake your body like a male salmon that has just been caught off guard by a hungry bear, literally you'll shake that ass fo' real, which is something that I appreciate a lot.

The Crookes have polished a very neat compilation of their own music, they have a sensible variety of sounds but they stay true to their music. I understand this is a debatable opinion since upcoming bands don't really have an identity until they become quite commercial, but still my point remains.

Overall the album is very complete, but its quite short. 10 songs that add up to no more than 33 minutes, I'm not too sure how I feel about that. As I wrote this review I heard the album twice in a row, it served a purpose but I can forsee it becoming boring and monotonous after while. Obviously this always happens to any song but half of the songs in Hold Fast aren't that addictive to listen to, so it can get quite boring.

Filler songs:

All bands have them in albums, even Legend (Yes even one or two songs from Bob Marley's best hits has a filler) This album almost has none. I respect filler songs, its like the odd burnt pop corn in the microwaveable packet, every now and then it happens one gets the one that burnt more than the others, well...

same goes here in the music industry, bands record 7 out of 10 with their heart and soul and the last 3 are usually crap, and you can recognise them straight away.

Afterglow is definitely my favourite song, it has a great tempo, its catchy, the chorus will remain printed into your head for hours after the song is done and the synthesisers mix in very well with the sound of the guitars, the drums make a great rhythm too. 

My least favourite song  is probably 'The I love you Bridge', ironically the last song in the album. I found it slow and poor, it didn't have a beat you can dance to and the lyrics and vocals were boring. Clearly the filler song in this case.

Overall I give this album 7/10.

Good start for the band; it delivers what it promises, it shows what these guys are all about, it remains true to their style, it has a good variety of songs that doesn't make everything sound the same (unlike Tourist History by Two Door Cinema Club) and doesn't go off track like Editors or Boy Kill Boy. On the other hand the album its slightly short and I don't think that's the perspective bands want to take when they first come out big, they should be looking for some more songs and a couple more with that fast tempo and active head spinning power like Afterglow.

This is definitely a band to follow.

I hope you found this review useful.

Two great reviews by BBC and the Guardian