It’s amazing what a bit of polish can do for a band. Up until now, Crocodiles have revelled in a lo-fi approach to making music, music that was once heavily indebted to the Jesus & Mary Chain but has managed to escape its influences. 2010’s ‘Sleep Forever’ hinted at true greatness following in its wake, as the band really found their feet after a promising debut (‘Summer of Hate’, released a year before that), delivering strong hooks that cut through the wall of noise.
Up until now, Crocodiles (newly expanded to a quintet) have gone for gradual change from one album to the next, but the way I see it, ‘Endless Flowers’ does not have NSFW cover art for nothing, because, in relative terms, it’s the sound a band stripping things back. Crocodiles now sound tighter, more accomplished and – I’m gonna say it – better than they ever have before. Who knew that all they needed to do was pare back their sound and focus it? The album, comprised of ten euphoric noise-pop songs, is nothing if not completely focused.
The album opens with a brace of singles; the title track and ‘Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)’ will be familiar to fans, but their placement at the start of the record gives it the necessary kick it deserves. Of course Crocodiles are going to come out fighting; now that they’ve undergone a reinvention, they sound ready to take on the world, so why not show that off? Bright and breezy melodies combine with rumbling bass-lines and punchy drums to create an intoxicating, summery sound.
It’s not all sunshine and roses, though: on the album closer ‘You are Forgiven’, Brandon Welches sings, ‘I don’t know why, but I don’t even know what I know anymore’, while on the woozy, tension-filled album highlight ‘Hung Up on a Flower’ (what is it with them and flowers), the chorus is downbeat and reflective: ‘It’s all right / Yeah, I’ll get by / I’ll just get high / Wait around to die’. As for ‘My Surfing Lucifer’ (best song title of the year?), the song opens with two minutes of distorted, processed German (yep), creating a seriously disorienting effect. However, not even its darker moments can detract from the generally optimistic feel of the album (which, in a brilliant move, runs from start to finish as one complete piece) – and Crocodiles can afford to be optimistic, because now, after four years of trying, they’ve finally struck gold.
Endless Flowers will be released next week on Souterrain Transmissions, and you can stream the whole thing on Rolling Stone.
Posted by Gareth O’Malley
