Staff Reviews

The Crookes - Chasing After Ghosts

Review by Robert Cooke

The Crookes pay for their intellectualisation with a lack of anthemic immediacy, but it’s nice to know that there’s a place for poetry in contemporary pop. »

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'chasing after ghosts' is the crookes' debut album. it follows hot on the heels of their 'dreams of another day' ep, released on fierce panda in september 2010. admirers of the independent work ethic may care to note that 'chasing after ghosts' was delivered in its demo form entirety before the ep was even released. the full-length was subsequently recorded in leeds in november with matt peel on a diet of literary passion and reasonably-priced red wine. if the seven tracks on 'dreams another day' captured a young band striving to find their feet and untangling their new pop angles then 'chasing after ghosts' sees the crookes crack on with their own plans for bequiffed domination. striving to avoid indieboy comparisons and to set their own melodic agenda their lovingly-created brisk twanging hoedowns ('chorus of fools' and lead-off single 'godless girl'), are now augmented by the heroically bleak 'youth' and the frankly epic closer 'city of lights'. it's the sound of a band rapidly growing up. in fact, it's the very soundtrack to that maturing process, for as they say themselves, 'every song is concerned with the tension between a bleak reality and escapism through imagination. specifically, it's a testament of youth, with most of the songs addressing a sort of loneliness and angst that is particularly painful when you occupy that liminal position between childhood and adulthood.' not for nothing did bbc's uberfan steve lamacq once describe the crookes as 'the kings of romance'. though all originally hailing from other cities, george, alex, daniel and russell have found a spiritual home in sheffield and its dance floors, and whilst their musical roots lie in spector's wall of sound, their tales are drawn from the stone walls of yorkshire. the crookes' mutual love of d.h. lawrence, evelyn waugh and alan sillitoe inform their kitchen-sink tales of broken hearts and bloodied knees, which are set against a backdrop of '50s rock'n' roll and '80s indie classicism.
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