Crows are back with Reason Enough, album number three, following 2019’s debut, Silver Tongues, which was a time that saw them supporting IDLES amongst others, which was promising, if a little messy in parts, ahead of their more coherent 2022 follow-up, Beware Believers, and one that has seen them at a crossroads, taking longer to write than the others and instigating a change of mood in the camp.
As guitarist Steve Goddard put it, “We don’t want to sound the same as we did before – this is our third album, we have to move on. And so we fucked around a bit more.”
That change in tone is obvious from the start, the title track kicking off with a broody build which ends up in a swirl of guitar and drums, its moodiness in not being happy with their lot in what’s going on with the world carrying through to recent single ‘Bored’, a painful plea against mundanity, set over a tuneful cacophony, and it’s obvious that Crows have found their tune-laden sea legs, sounding, for want of a less icky word, as commercial has they ever have, like the poppier end of White Lies or Placebo.
Lyrically, they find themselves questioning more, “Is it better to love, or to live in fear of pain?” they ask on ‘Is It Better’, before the Antics-era Interpol-esque ‘Vision Of Me’, and the feel of this new found belief and confidence streams through this record, and it is a state that really suits them, more melodic than what has go on before, thoughtful rather than straight up noise.
“We never set out to achieve a specific type of sound,” Goddard continues. “We preferred for things to take their natural course.”
Side one comes to an end with the politically charged ‘Land Of The Rose’, the highlight of the record, an angry state of the nation address (they are not fans of it) with snarling guitars sitting the outburst of discontent, every day getting worse than the last, the sense of malaise and unease shining through.
If there are any more singles to come from the record, then the obvious choice would surely be ‘Lie To Me’, with its huge earworm chorus, almost bombastic in a good way, which feels like it is bound to be a live favourite.
It’s much more mature than the first two records put together and they are becoming unrecognisable from their youth, although ‘Living On My Knees’ sees them revert back towards full on snarl mode. The production on the album is also a game changer, ‘Silhouettes’ and closer ‘D-Gent’ really benefit from the gothic shimmer that sparkles, especially towards the end of proceedings.
At just under 35 minutes and only 10 tracks long, it’s a coherent piece of work that should see them finally pop their heads into the mainstream. It’s a record where it sounds like Crows, three albums in, have now finally taken the handbrake off.
