ALBUM REVIEW: Crocodile Tears – Baker Ja Lehtisalo
Drone music of any kind is a tricky one to critique. While the aim is to create ambience, there is of course the deeper purpose of all music, which is to illicit some kind of response. Duo BAKER JA LEHTISALO release their new record Crocodile Tears that plays with many ideas, creating an album that’s an exploration of a variety of genres including new wave, doom, drone and shoegaze.
Title track (And I Want Your Perfect) Crocodile Tears is a lot to get through. A fair start, it has big synth notes to introduce the second act with a tone of whimsy and awe. The alternating between tonal patterns is really interesting, and the layers of both instrumentals and vocals makes for an interweaving mixture of sounds. Through the drone, there are moments of joyous release, as well as a bombastic circle back around to the bookending final act. While this final third is obviously the more enhanced climax of that more diminished intro, it becomes clear that this is much too long. The transition into the ending takes two minutes to set in, and then it’s a six-minute rotation of roughly the same loop. The decay and alteration of the melody is so gradual it lacks any impact and becomes a bore while there’s still around three minutes to endure. While there’s a nice idea in here, this leans into the side of creativity that can’t do the brutal thing and cut down the meandering to something more digestible for listeners that aren’t the artists themselves.
However, the fluid movement into I Wanna Be Your Bête Noire is nice. There’s a sort of blown out grain to the drone this time around, breaking it apart from the clean keys. It feels like the difference between the wind and sea, the easy calm of a breezy day, while below might be a turbulent churn of distortion roaring away in its own ebb and waves. However, again while this feels very cinematic and there are plenty of little gems in the mix to pick out on repeat listens, it’s just too long for what it’s offering. The upbeat change and the distinct modulation chosen to oscillate and reverse through it is really nice. It is just a shame there’s not a huge amount to hook into.
Neon Splashing (From Your Eyes) has too much stereo flickering in its pretty much unnecessary minute long intro. This part doesn’t link back to the rest of the piece and seeks to feel like an interlude, while acting as an intro to a song that’s already sprawling. Likewise, the dissonant middle section of the track that abruptly interrupts the flow of the song feels like poor playing masking itself as an intentionally jarring moment; it might have felt intentional to the creators as they were enveloped in the making of it, but again from an outside perspective it doesn’t add anything other than a momentary break. Unfortunately, it does seem like BAKER JA LEHTISALO can’t win in this review, because when things settle in, they do so far too much, creating another six-minute loop of the same beat, tempo, melody and progression. It’s just not interesting enough to warrant being over 12 minutes long.
There’s plenty to debate about the combination of new wave and electro pop with a cinematic edge that also wants to be like shoegaze and industrial drone. Does it work? Well, in part, yes. When there’s structure and direction, there are moments that are genuinely interesting to listen to – complex layers that play with tone and emotional response. However, in wanting to provide extensive soundscapes there has to be more than an overall sense of pleasantness. When looping the same version of events for elongated amounts of time, inevitably interest is lost. Consistency and drive are paramount, and BAKER JA LEHTISALO can actually deliver on it, despite this review thus far.
Prime examples are final tracks Face/Off and Racing After Midnight. This is by far the most interesting section of the record, not least because both tracks introduce what they are immediately, sprinkling in the weird and disconcerting psychedelic elements appropriately. Face/Off especially becomes less of a background blur and more of a journey you can close your eyes and imagine your way through. An empty, dripping pause is thrillingly burst through by a sliding guitar, slowly creeping up and down. The tapping of the drum keeps the consistency, while other parts are allowed to come and go as they please, adding life and character to this weird little tune. There’s so much more texture and thought in these tracks that the cacophony at the end is a genuine delight to get to, rather than an annoyance like the start of the record.
The frustrating thing about Crocodile Tears is there’s clearly potential in every song on it. BAKER JA LEHTISALO know their stuff, and can make really cinematic soundscapes. However, they just seem happy to keep a muddled, jam style to their sound. Everything that is somewhat interesting is eroded by the literal time it takes to get through each song. When you’ve heard each nuance of tone and instrumentation for so long that there’s nothing to capture your imagination anymore and you’re left with background music, you might actually become a little frustrated after a time.
Rating: 6/10
Crocodile Tears is set for release on December 9th via Ektro Records/Broken Spine Productions.
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