There’s no point in discussing what musical endeavours the various members of Crazyarm got up to before forming this band, because it’s entirely superfluous. Here we have a new band that sounds like a grizzled, road-hardy bunch of musicians singing for their supper, such is the inherent power and dirty glory of their songwriting.
‘Here To Keep’ is the standout track on this too-short demo. With its intelligent mix of toe-tapping rhythms and catchy melodies, it’s the sort of song that could soundtrack the moment when you open your front door after being away from home for a few months. It’s superbly uplifting in the sense that it rushes and swells around you, gently growing until it almost mutates into something entirely different, a galloping euphoric plea to “be not afraid / to hold out your hand”. It perfectly captures what Crazyarm sound like live (yeah, I know it’s a live recording but still…), because it’s so full of energy and can really transport you to somewhere new.
With ‘Asphalt’ and ‘Meet The Marines’ displaying a grittier groove, the best thing about this demo is that even within three and a half songs (the fragment of ‘Christ In Concrete’ is tantalisingly short) Crazyarm show that they have a reservoir of talent from which to draw. The vocals on ‘Asphalt’ have such depth behind them that they usher in the spirit of something tortured and heartfelt, like Josh Homme if he’d been born in Texas circa 1872. Combining thick, gutsy riffs and some fine melodic flourishes, it’s an ideal partner for the darker, more cerebral ‘Meet The Marines’.
Crazyarm are exciting, and they deserve more than the toilet circuit around the UK. Their command of rock and folk music, and their skills in combining the two, suggest that they should be standing on some huge stages sooner rather than later.