Album Review: Crawlers, The Mess We Seem To Make

Crawlers are off to a kicking start. The four-piece Scouse band have finally released their long-awaited debut, The Mess We Seem To Make and, after witnessing how their previous releases —like Come Over (Again)— became instant social-media hits, expectations were high.

The 12 songs in the album are sometimes grungy, energetic, a bit on the edgier side; yet both lyricism and instrumentals carry an emotional depth that we’re glad to find in a band like them.

Meaningless Sex begins strong with a powerful riff and interesting lyrics, a promising start to the album. We can’t help but appreciate the instrumentals in Kiss Me, while Hit It Again surprises us by creating a catchy, enveloping melody with a cool bass line and sharp vocals. Would You Come to My Funeral comes up halfway through the first half of the record and, if anyone was beginning to find Crawler’s sound a bit repetitive, the song hits like a wave of fresh air.

A gorgeous and sombre Golden Bridge follows, heavy on the piano, and gives into the already familiar Come Over (Again), which still feels like a delicacy. Kills Me To Be Kind and What I Know Is What I Love are natural evolutions from the previous single, showing growth while maintaining a familiar sound throughout the album. And they do it really well. I End Up Alone feels perhaps a bit less cooked, while Call It Love brings out a feeling of cohesiveness to wrap up The Mess with a slower tune, Nighttime Affair, which acts as a compelling goodbye lullaby.

A well-crafted, stirring record that establishes Crawlers as one of the top bands to look up to.

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