The title of Crash Harmony's debut album No One Asked For this refers to the fact that it has taken them 38 years, since they originally broke up, they were an obscure college rock band in New Haven Connecticut, for them to finally get it together to record an album. They no longer live in dorms and have worked on building various levels of musical legend, so that Mike Potenza, Dave Derby, Jon Nighswander and Nils Nadeau have managed to record this album, at Magic Door Recording studios in New Jersey, getting Mike Schrieber and Peter Hess in as special guests with Ray Ketchum producing.
The album opens with Velour Goddess in tribute to one of those bewitching women, who entrance you as they sashay past in Velour looking like they should have been on Charlies Angels, instead of making Byrdsian power pop, they just want a few more lessons from the Velour Goddess.
Last Night's Girl is in tribute to someone who left, to do the walk of shame, before you even woke up the morning after the adventures you had, can you remember her name, or where she said she was from, can you even remember what you got up to together? As the harmonies try to nudge your memory you gaze at a polaroid trying to make out who she was. Will tonight's girl leave a clearer memory?
Building Blocks rise from organ foundations in a slow soul pop style, that hopefully won't rain on anyone's parade, is this friendship built on firmer ground than the last one, the gently funky guitar might indicate a flighty nature.
Under Your Skin has a fuzzy guitar edge and more bass, all the things that made you creep them out are revealed.
German Camp is a Black Sabbath style heavy rock monster of despair, for kids forced to go to German Camp in the holidays and everything that went wrong at that camp. No they never really learnt the language, but did learn how to make themselves sound like a gang on the chorus.
Dancing With Joan is what they all want to do, who will win the battle of the wills, persuading her to dance with you on Avenue B, making your dreams come true, with all the strange feelings she stirs in you.
Orange Background is gently evocative neo-psychedelic jangle pop from more laid-back times. Like a mellow Big Star unafraid to state how much they love you.
Writing You Out Of My Scene is as bitter and twisted as the title suggests, he's had enough, you have to be gone, like yesterday, bitter guitars twist the knife in, these are the final rites of this relationship, burned onto your brain with searing intensity of the solo.
Floating sounds like they are dreaming of playing Pooh Sticks again, they have nothing to do but play in your back yard, this has a sweet almost nursery rhyme edge to it.
Cymbelline must be what they were studying the last time they got together before the long hiatus, they paid so little attention they didn't even learn to spell her name correctly, unless this is about the Cotswolds perfumery. But that doesn't stop this from being a compelling song, looking at her legend, with some good stop start dynamics allowing them to worship that velvet queen, taking off to the further reaches on the outro.
Find Out More at https://linktr.ee/crashharmony https://www.facebook.com/crashharmony https://crashharmony.bandcamp.com/album/nobody-asked-for-this
