By: Peter Gaston
There’s a mere hairline standing between obnoxious ambition and the earnest variety. For the most part, the Crimea shuffles about on the latter side of that hairline on their debut, Tragedy Rocks. Crimea mastermind and bedroom noodler Davey Macmanus lunges, sometimes desperately, for that brass ring of studied studio wizardry, but what makes his output inevitably endearing is how he often comes up short.
The imperfections of Tragedy Rocks give it character. Heavily titled, “The Great Unknown” is an inflated, classical guitar-inflected slow build, the kind that someone like Conor Oberst takes super seriously. But there’s something so unsure about the raspy friction in Macmanus’ vocals — they’re far more playful than plaintive — that offsets the song’s pompous builds with a much-appreciated frailty. Macmanus hits much closer to the mark with the succinct, instantly catchy “White Russian Galaxy,” where toy piano gleefully accompanies the refrain “What goes on in her pretty little head?” Densely layered with plucked guitars, fuzzy chords, and mushy lyrics, the track is tailor-made for your next autumnal swoon mix CD, if that’s the kind of thing over which you like to obsess. And “Baby Boom” should pique the interest of Hollywood music supervisors seeking accompaniment to any episode-closing montage this fall.
The Crimea are also one of the rare bands who actually turned a music festival gig into a record deal, having been “discovered” at a showcase during 2004’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Now they’re on the road in the U.S. supporting Tragedy Rocks with a few gigs before heading back home for a U.K. tour. For those of you in New York, visit the band’s official site for info on a record release party this Saturday night.
The Crimea tour dates:
9/27, Covington, KY (Mad Hatter) 9/28, Cleveland, OH (Beachland Ballroom) 9/30, New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom) 10/3, Boston, MA (TT the Bear’s)
