The Cranes: c or d?

Tempted to get this. I assume it's very much in the vein of their last two releases?

Yes, but even more restrained -- it's the keyboards rather than the drums or guitars that provide a lot of the focus this time out, but there's that same sense of rhythmic undertow and slightly ominous edge. But what's nice is that it doesn't feel any less like a Cranes album for that reason. As Alison's voice is unchanged and Jim clearly still listens out for that sense of rhythm and focus first and foremost, it's a very natural course to take.

Why do people hate Population 4? I have all their albums excpet the french concept album((always too expensive)) and while Population 4 is not one of their best,, it has not one bad song and "Sweet Unknown" is arguably their best song,, I think that the This Mortal Coil follow-up Hope Blister covered it and I'm glad that someone else thought that song was special.

Its one of those songs you'll never forget the first time you heard it,, Cranes have had me in pain with the incredible sad beauty of songs like "Tommorrows Tears" and "Paris and Rome",, but with "Sweet Unknown",, it made me feel a way I've never been made to feel by ANYTHING in art or life in general..... I'm a decent person with a pretty clear conscious,,, but that song sounded so astoundingly beautiful and pure that I felt a bit of a shabby person and it made me want to be a better person. WOW!!!

Play that song to a saint and theyll cry and promise to be a better person(((I'm not saying I'm a saint))).

As much as I love Slowdive and Chapterhouse and other bands of that era/scene,, I often think Cranes are better because they are just so incredibly unique that you feel greatful that they exist. If Slowdive did not exist I'm sure someone else would have done something similar to fill that void((not an insult,, I love them to pieces)),, but Cranes worringly could easily never have existed. Scary thought for me.

I played Population 4 once and thought it was the most boring, self-indulgent music I'd ever heard (and I own multiple Sky Cries Mary albums).

Good god. (In re: Sky Cries Mary.)

The dislike for Population Four is one of those things I'll never get my head around. People hating REM's Monster too. Because both those albums, while different from the rest,, it confuses me why people find them offensively different or wrong for that particular artist to have done.
Its like someone trying to tell me my elbows and ankles hate me eternally and have been trying to kill me for my whole life.

Surely one of you like "Sweet Unknown"?

I couldn't tell you anything substantial about any of the songs off of that album; I literally have not listened to it since the day I bought it.

I did get their most recent one off of iTunes and thought it was pleasant.

Just listen to that song. It makes the whole album.

"Lillies" is still a fantastic song, so many years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqUjQiQ-YNQ

also "Starblood"

more music should sound like it should soundtrack someone tenderly, lovingly pulling the face off of a kitten

The first concert I went to was Cranes at the 930 Club at the old location on 930 F Street in DC in 1996 and the memory still kind of stings. I went with my then "girlfriend" (beard) and then a week later I went to see them at the Masquerade in Atlanta with my first sort-of boyfriend, a deeply depressed goth boy named Matthew. We drove 6 hours from the tiny Appalachian town we lived in, went to see the show, then drove 6 hours back and I went to work at 8:00 a.m. at the grocery store I worked at.

The smell of the old 930 Club was a *thing*. It smelled of leather and cigarette smoke. I was completely sober and the DC show was the most intense show I have ever been to, and Atlanta was equally strong, but different. I don't know how to feel music that way anymore.

The first concert I ever went to, not just the first Cranes show.

Pop. 4 was terrible. I was in a really low point back then and I was super reliant on music to help me stay sane, and Pop. 4 was like my best friend leaving me.

Around that same time, The Cure's Wild Mood Swings and Tori Amos' From the Choirgirl Hotel came out and I decided I hated music for quite a long time.

Re-listening to their various releases recently made it so much clearer for me how 'Loved' is by far the best thing they ever did (no matter how great the other albums are).

It's been a while since I gave them a spin but from memory Forever just edged it. Agree with Je55e that the rot set in with Population 4.

not really - pop 4 was the end of something (although that disaster came out of nowhere) - when they came back they were quite a different band but their subsequent albums were never less than solid (tho probably not unforgettable)

I'll defend Population 4 forever. Seriously, Listen to "Sweet Unknown", I think it was covered by that This Mortal Coil followup Hope Blister (and a few people on youtube), so someone else obviously loves it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13CmES4-ovA

They are doing a few concerts soon, I doubt I'll ever see them here in scotland.

I've been missing Tragedie for a while, I'm scared to buy it in case the reissues start catching up again.

I have been listening to Cranes a lot this week! They remind me of a dear friend. Alison Shaw has one of those voices that's so distinct that it's really fun to imitate.
They had this one song – blargh this is going to be so vague – that I heard years ago w/like really intense feedbacky outro and she just periodically says "yeah" as the lyrics. Any ID on that one?

It's on Wings Of Joy I know that much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dtaw5LxaVE

I only saw them once, in Glasgow on the Wings Of Joy tour and my abiding memory of it was a slightly unusual atmosphere, the audience were being very, very quiet and attentive. It was like you might have expected at a Swans concert, a somewhat solemn and religious crowd.

There were a bunch of English gothy types - that I assumed were following them around - down the front and they were shushing people (needlessly) and giggling, taking the piss, I guess they must have seen it before.

saw them once on a double bill w/Slowdive, an inspired piece of programming

Listening to Wings of Joy in full for the first time in years, possibly even ever (I mostly remember playing "Starblood" over and over and over)

this whole album is an unsettling, amazing artifact

Very fragile, for all the power of "Starblood," and that's part of the thing -- you can tell that they were equally in thrall to pounders like Einsturzende and Swans while still aiming for this incredible restraint and focus at the same time.

Really hope they bring out another record. The reissues stopped after Loved as well.

I got Tragedie at the start of this year and it is really something. Almost like Art Zoyd!

Haven't heard Wings of Joy in a decade - not sure I'd like to, as I remember it to be pretty lifeless compared to what they would do later on.

it is remarkably static, but in great, contemplative, "if I open the closet door I may find my parents' bodies" way

indeed - the cover art captures the feeling quite well. Also at the time they seemed to have a pretty strong obsession with Wenders' 'Wings of Desire': the album title of course, but also I remember them using that film's opening theme as their intro music when walking on stage - and that film is all about observing mundane life from a static and eerily lifeless vantage point.

If you’re looking for something Cranes inspired, I’ve been enjoying an album my ex recorded in 2010:

http://www.rdio.com/artist/Sarah_June/album/In_Black_Robes/

LOL. I just noticed Ned wrote the review for the aforementioned album.

I was about to say, wait a minute!

Tempted to get that last (I guess final?) album of theirs.

FFFFSSSS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89y1QJM6eNs

The version of Starblood completely bangs.

Heading Starblood in the Rose Bowl (when opening for the Cure) will always remain engraved in me

Cool, don't know when I'll watch that but thanks.

I think they said they're working on a ton of stuff but it's been quite a wait. But I'm patient.

Solo EP from guitar/keyboard guy
https://paulsmith.bandcamp.com/album/through-strange-windows

Heading Starblood in the Rose Bowl (when opening for the Cure) will always remain engraved in me

That was definitely an experience.

I saw them live during that tour. Amazing.

18 September 1991

At the end of 1994 my life collapsed around me. Five years earlier I moved to NYC and attempted to make it into the "music biz" with varying degrees of success but i got involved with a person who was a mess and a combination of that and my own immaturity led to an untenable situation. The end result meant that I had no choice but to leave her as well as the city I loved and I thought everything else as well. I did the dreaded "move back with your parents a failure" thing in my mid 20s.

I didn't have a car. I got a job at the Ledo's Pizza walking distance from my parents place, but I didn't have any money for a car and public transportation around then in suburban DC was not the best. So I didn't think I could go to shows but I had an idea: Offer someone who was into music free shows in exchange for rides. I put up a little notice in the laundry room in the apartment complex and somehow someone answered. They didn't know Cranes, but I loved their last album Loved and I was able to snag free tickets from my former life and I bought one for her boyfriend.

It was 2/10/1995 at the 9:30 Club. I saw the band and they were wonderful, but more importantly it was a tiny shred of freedom and joy in music that I had started to take for granted when I was in New York attending 120 shows a year. It also allowed me to have some semblance of a social life, which is not easy when you sleep on your parents floor in your mid 20s with nothing lined up.

In many ways, that was the best show I ever went to. It was just what I needed, just when I needed it. I will always treasure the memory of that show.

Oh, and this is perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CH12Rxvz40

Yeah, in many ways "Lilies" is my platonic ideal of what I want to hear from Cranes.

I never owned any of their albums as a kid, but I must have listened to the Jewel EP with the Robert Smith mix hundreds of times. Been trying to track this one down for ages, I just could never remember the name of the song. Such an awesome version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZdEByzo-8I

yeah I got that EP for free at a show and it could well be my favorite release of theirs

this one's on it, too - i like it a lot more than the heavy version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BOZDtGIHkM

Can't find the fan forum anymore where I used to check for updates. Hope the new stuff is further along.

Wow I was just thinking of them yesterday and wondering how they spent their days (just can’t imagine Alison Shaw having a normal job). Didn’t know they were working on new stuff

man I wore out the robert smith remix of 'jewel' in college. fell in love after seeing them open for the cure in '92. favorite song on wings of joy is 'thursday'. saw them again in NYC in '97 and it was the worst show i've ever seen

I watched that Luxor performance last night and she spends half the concert trying to hold her hat in place, but it's really good for a camcorder concert.

Sometimes I think they were the best band of their era/generation, on the strength of Loved, Forever, Tragedie and Self Non Self.