{"id":763,"date":"2009-03-06T11:56:18","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T16:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=763"},"modified":"2009-03-06T11:56:18","modified_gmt":"2009-03-06T16:56:18","slug":"splendid-review-ht003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/splendid-review-ht003\/","title":{"rendered":"Review – A Cricket in Times Square"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Author: Amir Karim Nezar<\/a><\/div>\n
Source: Splendid Magazine<\/div>\n
Link to this article<\/a><\/div>\n
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It’s not unusual for a band to be indebted to groundbreaking acts like Galaxie 500, Sonic Youth, and Slowdive — but the band that escapes the shadow of such towering influences is a rare treat indeed. A Cricket in Times Square accomplish that feat admirably. Washing the cavernous spaces that permeate their self-titled debut with sublime guitar textures, and focusing their arrangements around sterling melodies, they attempt — and often successfully create — songs of engulfing beauty.Those melodies aren’t necessarily easy to locate amid the band’s whirlpool guitar-work and percussive thunder. Opener “Careless” barely hints at its ascendant melody in its early verses, guitars chugging, wraith-like hooks drifting in and out of the dense, brooding brew. Instead, it gains strength over the course of the song’s ensuing repetitions and steadily building intensity until a righteous thunderbolt of a guitar riff sends the storm out to sea. “5 1\/2 Minute Hallway” follows up by assigning melodic duties to the bass while layered guitars seethe and howl. It sets some impressively high expectations for the rest of the disc, and the tracks that follow never fail to meet them.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n

That strong songwriting foundation leaves the group free to build up their hooks and overall melodic complexity, and they take advantage of that freedom in fine style. “Hallway” stacks obliterating waves of effects-laden riffs in its final minutes, creating a guitar battle of epic proportions. “Mourning Son”‘s melodic barbs may not get under your skin, but it doesn’t really need to; its vintage Galaxie 500 explosion will blow you through the wall instead. Closer “Outliving Your Shadow” displays the band’s versatility by letting its interstitial spaces yawn a bit between the intricate guitar interactions.<\/p>\n

The group also takes care to differentiate the dynamics of their songs — an essential move for an album this dense. The soupy extended jams that routinely take center stage would be unbearable if they weren’t so deftly distinguished by their impressive guitar figures and instrumental organization. Despite a bit of overextension during some of their rockouts — the one at the end of “Outliving Your Shadow” exceeds six minutes — the band never seems lazy or gratuitous. For the better part of the album’s 37 minutes, this debut is a coherent and often magnificent display of craftsmanship and virtuosic skill. The band’s name may suggest an easily drowned-out, innocuous chirp, but this Cricket makes beautiful noise that could swallow up Times Square’s din any day of the week.<\/p><\/div>\n

—\u00a0Amir Karim Nezar<\/a><\/div>\n
Link to this article<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Amir Karim Nezar Source: Splendid Magazine Link to this article It’s not unusual for a band to be indebted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,47,64,50,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-cricket-in-times-square","category-artists","category-ht003","category-releases","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":759,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/stylus-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":0},"title":"Review – A Cricket in Times Square","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author:\u00a0Kyle McConaghy Source: Stylus link to this article \u00a0 Toying with post-rock formats, buckets of reverb, multiple guitar influences, 80s British vocals, and primitive production trickery, A Cricket In Times Square has harnessed a slick, yet roughhewn sound that will appeal to fans of The Smiths, Slint, Galaxie 500, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":756,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/pitchfork-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":1},"title":"Review – A Cricket In Times Square","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author:\u00a0Chris Dahlen Source: Pitchfork Media\u00a0 link to this article\u00a0Rating:\u00a07.6 The best way to act like a caveman is to live deep inside a cave, which is where A Cricket in Times Square have landed: their garage-rock guitars are run through shoegazer pedals and effects and magnified until they sound not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":114,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":2},"title":"A Cricket in Times Square: A Cricket in Times Square","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"November 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"[download#8#nohits] [download#8#image] 5\u00bd-minute hallway(6:11) mourning son (5:00) everything known about medicines (3:42) blood from heaven (4:34) outliving your shadow (12:37) Release Date: November 2, 2004 All compositions \u00a92004 A Cricket in Times Square. Recorded February\u2014July 2003 at WMUC Studios. Recorded and mixed by Sam Chintha, Matt Welch, and ACITS. Mastered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Cricket in Times Square - s\/t ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/ht003.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/magnet-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":3},"title":"Review – A Cricket in Times Squate","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Matthew Fritch Source: MAGNET Jan\/Feb 2005 This Seattle band\u2014named after a children's book (if you can get over Death Cab for Cutie, you can surely give Cricket a break)\u2014leaves no guitar-effects pedal untouched on its debut. Coupled with smothered-in-the-fog vocals, Cricket could easily fall in with the shoegaze ranks;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":486,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/a-cricket-in-times-square-st\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":4},"title":"A Cricket in Times Square – s\/t","author":"admin","date":"November 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A Cricket in Times Square A Cricket in Times Square 2004 Cd, Mp3 Download","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Cricket in Times Square - s\/t ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/ht003-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":752,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/rs-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":5},"title":"Review – A Cricket in Times Square","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: David Fricke Source: Rolling Stone Jan 2005 \"This twin-guitars band takes its inspiration from the echo-impressionism of Ride, the Church, and Sonic Youth. The blurred grandeur of this debut is particularly impressive...\"","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}