Crystal Antlers - Nothing Is Real

Crystal Antlers used to be chimney sweepers - which apart from meaning that they can probably knock out a pretty proficient cover of Dick Van Dyke’s ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’ – is more than a little odd.

But bar being a little heavier and longer, ‘Nothing Is Real’ is the same blend of scuzzy guitars and Johnny Bell’s throaty vocals that the Californian psych-rockers have been crafting since 2009’s ‘Tentacles’.

Take ‘Rattlesnake’ – after a slow start, it uncoils into a screaming, thrashing chorus – before adopting a stop-start structure that’s suspense, turbulence and reptilian theme would make it the perfect soundtrack for Snakes on a Plane.

Similarly exhilarating is the brow-archingly named ‘Licorice Pizza’ – an explosion of cluster-bomb drumming and punk guitar, it’s an absolute corker and as direct as the band has ever been. The slower songs are just as successful as well – ‘We All Gotta Die’ is a grower, peaking with an ending that’s anthemic and epic in equal measures – and ‘Don’t Think of the Stone’ is a White Denim infused acid-trip that’s wonkier than Morph after he’s been out in the sun too long.

Sometimes the record feels a little samey – ‘Better Things’ is ironically the worst thing on there, not bringing much to the four-legged furniture – but there’s enough variety to keep the record afloat. In fact, the sequencing of the album is more on-point than a ballet dancer – similar tracks are distanced apart, and sandwiching the Savages-sounding spunk-and-punk of ‘Persephone’ between ‘Paper Thin’ and ‘Anywhere But Here’ is genius.

There’s nothing better than a good-old finale to close the show, however – and ‘Prisoner Song’ does that perfectly. It’s a slow-burning anthem that wraps the record up like a warm tortilla – with its confined title contradicting how liberating listening to ‘Nothing Is Real’, really is.