The music industry is weird. It has always been weird, but the streaming era seems weirder somehow. All it takes is a snippet of your song to go viral on TikTok and you’re made. That’s what happened to Crawlers.
One of the quirks of streaming is you can see exactly how popular a song is. On Spotify, ‘Come Over (Again)’ has almost 75 million streams. That’s almost a whole order of magnitude greater than their next most listened to song. It’s significantly more than all their other releases put together. It’s fascinating, it’s basically the modern equivalent of a one hit wonder, yet that hit has allowed them to build a career. In 2024 they released an album. ‘Live With This’ is the second EP they’ve released this year. After a line-up change, they say they’re a new band, but that’s not entirely true.
Crawlers have quite a distinctive sound, built around guitar, bass and drums. But the throbbing, whirring of ‘Birthday’ marks a shift from their last release. The ‘Turn Off The TV’ EP has an upbeat rock sound, but the tone of this is different. Although it retains the same feel the fading in-and-out, volume swelling sounds lend it an oppressive but dreamy quality. Despite featuring a huge scuzzy bassline and drum groove, the same is true for ‘Born Screaming’, in that it has a lush atmosphere that draws you in. There’s a deceptive simplicity to the song and you can really feel the craft. Indeed, all four songs are made up of relatively simple elements that sit together and saw against each other in interesting ways, creating a tension that Holly Minto’s vocals can then exploit.
Despite no longer having a drummer, and now being a trio made up of Holly Minto, Amy Woodall and Liv May, the drums are a key part of the sound. The loud snap and thump give the whole EP a specific texture presence. That works as a really great trick as it makes the songs feel alive. Notably, after its noisy opening, ‘Dirty Parts Of Heaven’ runs on a simple, snappy beat, giving it an energetic spiciness. Similarly, the way ‘Sure Of It’ starts quietly but builds around the thumping kit adds to its lyrical bite.
Minto’s vocal style is dusky and softly sung. It’s engaging and allows her to create a valley between confessional and sensational that she can trap you inside. On ‘Sure Of It’, her tone is accusatory and personal, but during the dirty, scuzzy chorus of ‘Dirty Parts Of Heaven’, her voice soars away. As she sings ‘I want to be clean’, it’s in the same honest tone that made ‘Come Over (Again)’ such an alluring hit. So while the music has transitioned away from that confrontational, personal sound into something richer, their songs haven’t lost their heart.
Crawlers have so much to offer. ‘Live With This’ is an honest, atmospheric reinvention, but more than that, it’s four great songs.
IAN KENWORTHY