Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles II

Digital Self-Release

Crystal Castles II

Digital Self-Release

Rocks Like: Your brain on finals week.

Grade: B+

Crystal Castles’ sophomore album could not have come at a better time. It’s finals week, your brain can only process simple words and desires: Coffee, sleep, alarm, evil, papers.

Crystal Castles II wakes the dead brains of zombified college students with its club-ready tunes. Songs are short bursts of sound with few words, overwhelming static and a beat that helps you focus.

Repetition and perfect length work for short attention spans in songs like “Doe Deer” with minimal vocals to distract you. Here, just like in their self-titled debut, Alice Glass yells over beats and robotic bops.

“Empathy” balances a softer vocal with a strong and steady electric sound, whereas “Suffocation” goes almost ethereal pop.

Crystal Castles’s first album was a little cleaner, friendlier. Crystal Castles II takes on a little pop, a little shoegazing rock with a beat that’s all electronica. The music’s straight forward, loud and soothing.

You might have a stack of papers and a week of exams, but an arsenal of energy drinks, No. 2 pencils and Crystal Castles II can ease that brain pain.