[Audio] Crystal Castles’ ‘Frail’

What do Crystal Castles sound like without Alice Glass? Well, it looks like were about to find out. Really, we weren’t sure Crystal Castles was even still a thing, but the remaining member, Ethan Kath, has just uploaded a brand new tune, with vocals by someone called Edith, titled Frail. The accompanying blub feels a tad bitchy: “I wish my former vocalist the best of luck in her future endeavours. I think it can be empowering for her to be in charge of her own project. It should be rewarding for her considering she didn’t appear on Crystal Castles’ best known songs. (She’s not on “Untrust Us”. “Not In Love”, “Vanished”, “Crimewave”, “Vietnam”, “Magic Spells”, “Knights”, “Air War”, “Leni”, “Lovers Who Uncover”, “Violent Youth”, “Reckless”, “Year of Silence”, “Intimate”, “1991”, “Good Time”, “Violent Dreams”, etc.). People often gave her credit for my lyrics and that was fine, I didn’t care.”. Honestly, we didn’t know she wasn’t on so many of CC’s hits, but she was still the front-person of the band; the bands energy and face. We guess we’ll just have to see where things progress to from here.

Frail does sound sounds pretty Crystal Castles-y. I don’t know why we might have expected it to sound otherwise. The rousing and evocative rave synths are in place, alongside the pounding drums and heavily modulated vocals. It has the driving energy of the best of Crystal Castles. The beats sound a little disjointed, but that grows on you. It’s a solid Crystal Castles tune, but we can’t help feeling that Alice’s departure might have been a good point to try something different. nonetheless, it;s nice to have a new CC tune on the playlist.