Artist: The Crystal Furs
Song: Beautiful And True
Label: Subjangle 

Portland, Oregon has a strong tradition of producing innovative and contemporary music throughout the years with exponents such as The Dandy Warhols, The Decemberists and Esperanza Spalding. Continuing that theme are The Crystal Furs with the release of their third album, Beautiful And True.

Since their formation in 2015, The Crystal Furs have combined catchy guitar-centric pop and vintage organ sounds with thoughtful, literate lyrics about anxiety, architecture, and lesbian romance.

Think of those jangly C86 tunes mixing genteel harmonies, spiralling keyboards, melodic guitar/ bass sounds and wistful vocals and you begin to get the drift here.  Lead single Expo 67 is a case in point, it’s an architectural lesbian love story, the song starting with a cool organ led intro before developing into a bright, breezy belter of a tune which brings a smile to the face and evokes memories of The Shop Assistants and Voice Of The Beehive.

The album continues in very much the same vein with Pretty Mind showcasing perfectly what the band are trying to convey – the song exudes the lushish, textured pop sensibilities of the ’60s but dig a bit deeper and the lyrics bring across a message of small town, inward looking mentality and the struggles of being considered weird and different. Other topics the band address across the album include personal adversity, LGBTQ rights, body image, self-discovery and more. A highlight is Burn Us Down which sees the band explore a more rockier vibe.

The band had this to say about the album:

“Beautiful And True is not just our third album – it’s a new start for us. Our first album in Portland, Oregon. Our first album out and living as our real selves. 

We’ve poured a lot of ourselves into the music you’re going to hear on this album, and we hope it brings you as much joy to listen to as it gave us to make it.”

Beautiful And True by The Crystal Furs is available to buy here.

John Welsh
@welshjb

Links:
@CrystalFurs
@subjangle
@janglepophub