AMAMA (Olive Green Vinyl) [Vinyl]

因單曲〈Locket〉打響世界知名度的紐約樂團 Crumb 總是將 psych-pop、Indie Pop 以及 R&B 融合成難以捉摸的獨特聲音，最新專輯《AMAMA》他們回顧了這十年來的樂團旅程，將一路上的聲音與成長緊密又舒服地拼了起來，催眠大度提升。

New York psych-pop band Crumb return with AMAMA, their most carefree and open-hearted album to date. A soundscape full of playful and patchwork experimentation — glitchy pitch-shifted vocals, cell phone recordings, nautical blips, sax mouthpiece solos, blasted drum samples, and piano strings dampened with Silly Putty — AMAMA continues to deepen the band hypnotic sound in a cohesive line back through 2021s Ice Melt, 2019s Jinx, and breakout EPs Locket and Crumb. Without a doubt, AMAMA is Crumb — singer and multi-instrumentalist Lila Ramani, keyboardist and saxophonist Bri Aronow, bassist Jesse Brotter, and drummer Jonathan Gilad — at their most animated.

Buoyed by Ramani songwriting, at turns poetically abstract and directly confessional, AMAMA culls the strange encounters from Crumb touring years, tracing the dizzying path of a group that been in movement for nearly a decade. “Crushxd” is an ecstatic requiem for a turtle flattened under the tires of a tour van; “(Alone in) Brussels” finds Ramani in forced isolation in a distant city. On “The Bug,” were at a pit stop in a seedy motel, where a critter bite leaves a nagging feeling: “Its always on my mind / its just always on my mind,” Ramani repeats over a creeping groove as she wanders the place at night. On “Side by Side,” perhaps the most candid track on AMAMA, frenetic percussion and disorienting, layered synth envelop Ramani as she considers the personal sacrifices she made along the way.

Even as it explores transient stops and fraught encounters, AMAMA features some of Crumb most vulnerable, tender searches for organic connection. “Home is what I want and what I need,” Ramani sings on the clear-sighted opener, “From Outside a Window Sill”—which samples a police radio scan about a flock of geese crossing a bridge in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where Ramani grew up. The title track, “AMAMA,” is an upbeat and hopeful homage to Ramani grandmother, her namesake, who sings in Malayalam in the opening sample. The two voices, Lila and Leela, separated by language and place, intertwine as if on a spotty long-distance call in what is the most direct love song of Crumb repertoire. On the album closer, “XXX,” laden with distorted, industrial sounds, we finally find respite—a house shared between two lovers, a safe place. In the last moments, Ramani asks: “Isnt this as good as it can get?”

AMAMA exists at the crossroads of psychedelia, pop, jazz, and rock, and cements Crumb as a band uniquely their own. Released independently on Crumb Records and produced alongside Johnscott Sanford and Jonathan Rado in Los Angeles, AMAMA is an incandescent statement about searching for solid ground, connection, and clarity in a life of nomadic upheaval.