In a worthy attempt to keep from repeating themselves to diminishing returns, with fourth album Crimes of Passion the California duo
Crocodiles moved away from the sometimes unfocused noise rock sound they started off playing in favor of something poppier and more direct. On their next album,
Boys, they refined their pop sound even more and added some Latin influences that were a byproduct of recording at producer Martin Thulin's Mexico City studio. Working again with Thulin, who had become something of a third member of the band, the duo took a more drastic step on 2016's
Dreamless. Early during the recording process, they decided they were tired of guitars and consciously decided to strip them out of their spot as the main focus of the
Crocodiles sound. Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell built the rhythms and the prominent basslines, still writing dirty bubblegum hooks, but where there were walls of distorted guitars before, now there were banks of sweeping synths; where there were spiky guitar lines, now there were rollicking organs and echoing pianos. The duo gave the task of adding the keyboards to Thulin, and he proves to be a master at adding just the right tones and melodies to replace the six-strings. It's a little disconcerting at first to only hear prominent guitars on a couple of songs, notably the skronking "I'm Sick," but the arrangements are so arresting and the songs so catchy, it really doesn't matter after the first spin. The trio works hard at making the arrangements fit the mood of the songs and words, getting sparse and spooky on "Go Now," propulsively danceable on "Welcome to Hell," new wave slick on "Time to Kill," and new wave doomy on "Maximum Penetration." A few songs sound nothing like
Crocodiles, like the rollicking Latin-inspired ballad "Alita" and the cheerful '60s pop/rocker "Not Even in Your Dreams," but it still works thanks to the focused songwriting and the care they put into the sound. That at least half the songs are among their most powerful and poppiest to date ("Telepathic Lover" chief among them) doesn't hurt, either. It takes a brave band to try a stunt like
Crocodiles do here; it takes a really good one to pull it off without a hitch. ~ Tim Sendra