Gold Cage - Social Crutch (2020) Hi-Res

Throughout their debut album Social Crutch (great name by the way), Gold Cage do a great job at making disappointment sound really *big*. The tambourines sound as close and large as their bursts of guitar. The lyrics are bleak, the melodies are pessimistic, the tempos are slow and the arrangements are minimal. The male and female voices bump into each other like awkward meetings in hallways. Drums start the songs, creating great empty spaces in need of filling. The guitars fill them full of depressed melodies. The bass is left to moon along at the back of the pack. This is slowcore-inspired American indie by numbers, and it’ll suit the mood of a University dorm perfectly after Cigarettes After Sex have faded out.