Crocodiles - Endless Flowers

Cover your eyes missus, there’s a naked bloke on the cover of this. Titillation aside (if that’s what it’s meant to be), Endless Flowers is an album in the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it mold. Crocodiles see no need to tamper with their My Bloody Valentine-esque sonic palette and indeed why the heck should they? Maybe I’m coming over all nostalgic for one of the defining sounds of my teenage years but the sound they conjure up (along with the likes of The Von Bondies, Wavves etc.) is one of the few to consistently float my boat these days – highs and lows and no nonsense delivered at pace with fuzz and jangle, melancholy and yearning.

‘Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)’ is a case in point with its exuberant and unstoppable pursuit of a sugar rush from the musical equivalent of an ice-cream headache and infectious use of the tremolo arm, as is track four ‘Electric Death Song’ with its incessant drumming and Ride-like sawing guitar sound. More mature elements filter through in the considered ‘Hung Up On A Flower’ but the underlying garage quality is still well evinced. ‘Bubblebum Trash’ then successfully marries that garage element to the cloying nature of bubblegum pop.

Sound-wise things are broadened out in the last couple of songs with ‘Welcome Trouble’ featuring well placed organ parts and ‘You Are Forgiven’ closing on a tolled church bell to good effect, as well as the title nodding towards The Who. Going from strength to strength then, this is a more than worthy follow-up to Summer Of Hate and Sleep Forever.