Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith-"Not in Love"
Seth
Crystal Castles, a Toronto based electronic duo of the He Plays/She Sings variety, make crystalline (ha) music with the warmth of a Siberian countryside. Principal members Ethan Kath (who plays everything) and Alice Glass (who sings) have forged two albums of frigid horrorpop that would give Harlan Ellison bad dreams. They reached their pinnacle, however, with this year's single "Not in Love," sung by Goth godfather Robert Smith.
Notably, "Not in Love" is a cover, though this version blasts the original (by the semi-awful Canadian hair band Platinum Blonde) into the heart of the sun with such primal ferocity that anyone who even listens to the PB version is an idiot. CC have rebuilt the structure of the song from sub-Flock of Seagulls 80's dreck into an synth-and-MIDI nightmare orgy that's more unsettling than Vincent Price's ghost tickling the ivories of a burnt-out church's pipe organ at a Black Mass. The most important feature of the Crystal Castles version, though, is Smith's vocal take.
After the opening MIDI wave sets the ominous mood, Robert Smith sings the opening lines: "I saw your picture hanging on the back of my door,/I gave you my heart, no one lives there anymore." Robert Smith is the George Clooney of alternative rock: he only does one thing, but he does it better than anyone on the planet. For Clooney, that's playing a debonair American lead, for Smith, it's wailing out emotionally unhinged vocals about unrequited and/or dying love. True to form, Smith delivers this performance like he's trapped in an emotional hellscape between a molten earth and a charred sky.
Backing up Smith's edge of sanity hellhowl, Kath and Glass construct a musical world that shifts between insistent thump and swirling, vertiginous melody. The lyrics paint a picture of uncertainty in the aftermath of a love so completely destroyed that the former partners no longer even communicate--"we were lovers, now we can't be friends." All the uncertainty and tension in the song builds to the horrific, thrilling chorus when Smith comes unglued, wailing "I'm not in love" repeatedly. It's a credit to his skill that you wonder whether he's trying to convince the listener or himself.
Andrew
Like a John Carpenter movie with heartbreak as the monster, here comes Crystal Castles.
I've liked this band's stuff in the past but I somehow missed this song this year*. What I like most about "I'm Not in Love" is the juxtaposition of Robert Smith's voice with the harsh melody. I've often found Smith's voice a little limp and maudlin but when placed in counterpoint with the absolutely razor-sharp synths in this song, I gain a new appreciation for his style. One of the primary facets that draws me to "electronic" music is the distance between the warmth of the human voice and the coolness of the computerized backing. The constant push and pull between the two components can allow for fantastically complex and dramatic sounds and moods, as this song exemplifies perfectly.
And Smith does really step up on this one. He sounds less whiny (which I've often found his work with The Cure) than defiant. There is a thrilling quality to his heartbreak. The song is relatively taut and straightforward, lacking any audible frills or diversions. It hurtles from beginning to end without really much change in dynamic but, honestly, if I found a sound this tight, I'm not sure I'd be willing to vary it either.
*Look, I was very busy. I had many appointments, to-dos, and hootenannies.
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