"you must work in symmetry. you must earn their empathy."
Crystal Castles' second self-titled album (otherwise known as (II)) is an exercise in restraint and excess. The album takes on many guises and forms, from the jarring, dissonant distortion of tracks like "Doe Deer" and "Fainting Spells" to the larger than life synthpop walls of sound of "Pap Smear" and "Suffocation." With these new textures and soundscapes, Ethan Kath and Alice Glass built and expanded on the formula that made their 2008 debut so damn appealing. On "Empathy" the duo flirt with their 8-bit instincts but push past their comfort zones and end up in '90s R&B territory. Glass' voice (always distant, but nevertheless an omnipresent specter) sings of what I can only interpret as a message for those of us growing up in these uncertain times of the 21st century: give society your unending compassion, they need it, but remain true to the fucked up individual inside you.
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