Future Songs

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Since 1991, Cranes have been weaving a unique and awe-inspiring blended sound of alternative, classical nd noise around the provocative baby-doll voice of Alison Shaw. Future Songs marks Crane's first release since 1997.

AMAZON
Future Songs is the seventh album from the Cranes, probably one of the most misinterpreted bands on the planet. The Cranes have often been portrayed as industrial noise merchants, more often as simple goths. One reviewer described singer Alison Shaw as "a baby trapped in a toolbox"; this was intended as a blithe putdown, yet, taken from a different perspective, it's strangely accurate. Deliberately juxtaposing her vocals--her plaintive, unearthly voice delivering painfully open songs of love and loss--with her brother Jim's often punishing soundscapes, the Cranes were always primarily concerned with the way innocents are bruised and broken by life's hard, cold machinery. With Future Songs, they continue along the same path, with Alison still clinging to childlike hopes of happiness, despite the collapse of her relationships, and again producing a heart-wrenching set of melodies. And Jim Shaw, no longer intent upon bludgeoning his audience into submission, creates an ingenious and deeply moving backdrop, ranging from the dubby ambience of "Don't Wake Me Up" to the delicate acoustic guitar of "Even When." Future Songs is another superb collection from a laudably diligent, gloriously idiosyncratic, and tremendously gifted band. --Dominic Wills.