May 27, 2009

Album review: Crocodiles - 'Summer Of Hate'

If music be the food of hate, play on...

7 / 10 The title sounds like the bad pun of a bad punk band inverting the whole summer of love thing; you know, the sort who base their hairstyles on a postcard from Trafalgar Square and who’ll probably go on to release an album as pompous as ‘21st Century Breakdown’. But come back, they’re not like that. This San Diego duo’s year zero isn’t 1977, but 1989 and The Jesus And Mary Chain’s ‘Automatic’, with its trashy melodies, tacky drum machines and saccharine synth bass; ‘I Wanna Kill’ is all bubblegum bravado and ‘Sleeping With The Lord’ nods (out) to Spacemen 3 circa ‘Big City’. ‘Refuse Angels’ punks it up, but comes across more like No Age. It’s not original, but you’ll love it for the summer at least.

Nathaniel Cramp

More on this artist:
Crocodiles NME Artist Page
Crocodiles MySpace

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External Reviews of Crocodiles - Summer Of Hate

Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Crocodiles - Sleep Forever [Crocodiles]

"Though they're still slavishly devoted to their influences, Crocodiles expand their sound on their second LP with help from Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford. [Paul Thompson]"