It’s Too Late by The Crystal Teardrop–Single Review
It’s Too Late by The Crystal Teardrop–Single Review
Think of everything fantastic about the 1960’s. The paisley. The love beads. The PVC mini skirts. Vox AC 30 amps, Vox Phantom Guitars, and Vox Continentals. Carnaby Street. Oil projections. Light shows. Satin lapels and fitted purple velvet smoking jackets from Granny Takes a Trip. Brian. Anita. Feather boas. Plus, all of the best mind altering substances. And, of course, the music!
Now imagine if all of this, in some form or other, were to be swallowed up by “Rover” (that terrifying weather balloon from the 1967 British series The Prisoner) and carefully preserved in a time warp within mere millimeters of translucent latex separating its contents from the year 2026. If there were any group of musicians who could locate a tiny pinhole and slither into that time capsule that Rover had theoretically scarfed up, it would be The Crystal Teardrop, who claim to be the UK’s premier psychedelic garage-pop outfit. They’ve got the sound, the looks, the gear, the lights, and the attitude. And they seem to have direct portal access to London’s swinging underground of the late 1960s.
The Crystal Teardrop has a new single coming out. Its called “It’s Too Late” b/w “I’m all Rowed Out.” Everything you love about 60s psychedelia is encapsulated in these two feisty two-to-three minute tracks.
“It’s Too Late” starts off with a screaming, bending, and frenetically strumming high-on-the-neck guitar hook that sets the pace. The drums start immediately. They’re quite alert and perfectly mic’d, and they power that fast train you have just boarded with serious aplomb. Maracas accompany the drums like two two steam-churning maniacal pistons. Alexandra Rose Mason tackles the vocals right at the get-go, and she has a commanding vocal timbre that conjures up an impish Susanna Hoffs. The guitars have a great cavernous sound and the backing vocals resonate within the hollows. A nice greasy-sounding organ is right at home with the melody. The guitar sounds vary in later verses with a juddering tremolo effect that might remind you of The Smoke’s “My Friend Jack.”
“It’s Too Late” puts the “loco” in locomotive. It’s an unstoppable garage number and a tight, well-oiled go-go machine to boot!
As for “Side B”, The Crystal Teardrop cover the 1965 track “I’m Rowed Out” by The Eyes. They’ve yielded a brisk rendition of the song complete with the “Can’t Explain”/ “You’re Gonna Miss Me” guitar intro, which is tight, and exceptionally clean. It almost feels like you’re biting into the strings! A ghoulish organ enters. Mason comes in quick with the vocals again, but this time she is accompanied solely by drums that sound like the Mitch Mitchell breakdowns on Hendrix’s “Fire.” And stay tuned because there is a face-melting Townshend at Woodstock “Young Man Blues”- sounding solo. Vocals and drums alternate at the forefront with the guitar and organ hook. This happens at each verse, but just before, you’ll hear that familiar riff from the intro.
The song really cooks at the end as if all instrumentalists are playing loudly in their respective rooms in a house. The song concludes in a whirling tremolo eddy.
The Crystal Teardrop’s new single from Popclaw/Rise Above Records is due out Friday, April 10th, and is intended to coincide with the band’s upcoming tour dates supporting Love with Johnny Echols as well as The Pandoras.
Riffindots is Britta Pejic. Britta is a musician. Songwriter. Artist. Foreign Language Teacher. Grew up in Maine. Lived in France (The Basque Country). Now back in New England. Enjoys getting lost. Makes a lot of songs at home, puts them into a canister, then into a hatch and then through her own pneumatic tube system under the Atlantic. The songs are vacuumed out the other end, dusted off and polished by Console Lole, her loyal sound engineer back in Basque Country. It’s a system that works well for her. Follow @riffindots for cartoonish fun and visual mayhem or simply enjoy her music at https://brittapejic.bandcamp.com
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