The new album from indie retro-gaze band Crawling Vines is well rounded and intriguing.
Who Killed William Goose combines sounds from nearly every corner of the industry, with elements of indie rock, dream pop, shoegaze, and hints of Midwest emo sprinkled throughout.
The album is fairly short, consisting of only eight tracks. However, each track offers its own individual highlights. Tracks like “Landing Primo,” “On A Branch,” “EKG,” and “Best Part” all radiate indie instrumentals and practically bleed shoegaze-style riffs.
Each track is also accompanied by dreamy vocals from the talented Jack Henry Holston. Holston does an amazing job delivering these lyrics, which are quite comprehensible – unlike a lot of the genre’s predecessors and current bands working in the same scene.
Arguably the best track on the album and most innovative is “Red Ring of Death.” This song features some of the most relatable and nostalgic lyrics ever, tackling the feared “red ring of death” – hardware failure – that once plagued the gaming community.
The song features amazing instrumentals that are separated by an even more impressive industrial beat switch that leads with a sample of the mission “All Ghillied Up” from Call of Duty Modern Warfare. The sample for the beat switch is one of the most iconic quotes from the franchise, with this quote elevating the track to perfection.
