2024 Record Review: AMAMA - Crumb

The Brooklyn based psych-pop/rock band excites listeners with their third studio album

The sun is slowly peaking from the night sky. A tiny beam of light and a cool breeze shine through your window as you slowly open your eyes. This shaken yet comfortable feeling is the exact sound of AMAMA’s opening track, “From Outside a Window Sill.” Mellow guitar lines and a groovy drum beat meet wonderous synth sounds and a brisk bass line to widen their listener’s eyes. AMAMA is the third studio album from the Brooklyn-based psych-pop/rock band Crumb. After meeting in 2016 while attending Tufts University, Lila Ramani (lead vocals, guitar), Jesse Brotter (bass, vocals), Jonathan Gilad (drums), and Bri Aronow (synth, keys, sax) formed Crumb to rework instrumentals around Ramani’s old lyrics from high school and early college.

Although Crumb is the first EP/release from the band back in 2016, Locket, the second EP, helped grow the band’s outreach due to their hit song with the same name. Both EPs are known for their bright and sunny sound. Songs like “Locket” and “Bones” cemented the group as a classic indie-pop/rock band. Laid-back drum parts, synth parts mimicking bells, and groovy guitar riffs and bass lines were the recurring Crumb “sound.” As always, Ramani’s soft and almost blurred vocals are the focus of nearly every song. I also find a surf-rock influence in the band’s early releases, specifically on many guitar parts; these first releases reek of sunny spring and summer days spent by the water. In 2019, their debut album Jinx released. Although there was obvious maturing in the band’s sound, Jinx expanded on the brightness Crumb and Locket offered. Tracks like “Ghostride” and “Part III” offer that same upbeat sound, whereas “The Letter” and “And It Never Ends” let the band explore sullener and dimmer sounds. Their biggest jump in sound comes with the release of their second studio album Ice Melt. Despite releasing in the spring of 2021, this record is dark and feels like a cold night. Ramani’s vocals become more blurred, while the band instrumentally breaks the hazy trance they once had. Aronow’s synth lines slowly creep up behind Ramani, grabbing the focus of every listener. The band really reaches into the psychedelic nature of life here and begins adding more electronic elements to their music. Funny enough, AMAMA blends everything the band has previously shown us into one complete record. The darkness and cold chill of Ice Melt mix with the sunny and vivid sounds of Jinx, Locket, and Crumb.

Because of Ramani’s lengthy history of writing music, Crumb’s discography becomes timeless as many lyrics pull from different eras of her own life. I find the biggest change in each release with the instrumental and vocal editing concepts. AMAMA, like Ice Melt, is very visual. This record is extremely programmatic, meaning it serves not only as an auditory experience but an immersive visual experience. This happens right off the bat with “From Outside a Window Sill” and follows through until the final seconds of the ending track, “XXX.” Dead center in the album is the interlude, “Nightly News.” The 49-second track displays the tender feeling of waking in the middle of the night to a bright TV glow and the disorienting noise of the news. “Crushxd” describes the band’s experience on tour seeing a helpless turtle stuck in the road. “The Bug” details the feeling of being overtaken by an anxiety unwilling to detach from you. Ramani explained she wrote the outro of the song years ago while at a motel on tour. Awoken by multiple bed bug bites, she sang the outro to herself while roaming said motel. Both songs and many others alike on this record, detail anxiety-ridden emotions and the feeling of being stuck watching the world move without you. Bri Aronow’s synth and key parts are essential to the experimental and psychedelic nature of AMAMA. They sort of take the reins on this record, attaching perfectly with Ramani’s whimsical vocals. The guitar takes a bit of a back seat throughout AMAMA, which is interesting to see and hear from a band like Crumb. Although still used, the focus is clearly on synth, while Jesse Brotter and Jonathan Gilad ride us through swiftly with every bass and drum part. With the increase in disoriented electronic and synth elements creating that immersive nature, I can’t help but wonder who and what the band’s biggest influences for this album were. As always, there is a feeling of being linked closely to the many psych-pop artists that came before them, as well as influences from Latin jazz artists (the drums on “Crushxd” speak to this best.) More present though Melody’s Echo Chamber comes to mind, as the band collaborated with her just last year on the single “Le Temple Volant.” With every listen, I ask myself if any new wave or post-punk groups of the 80s influenced this record as well. Specifically, with track 9, “Sleep Talk,” there seems to be slight surges of 80s pop. The outro features a drum fill at 2:29 that speaks to this better than anything else.

AMAMA makes every listener aware of Crumb’s evolved sound and their maturement as a unit. I believe this is the best work we have seen from the band yet, and I am excited to hear what is next. Specifically, with their US tour slowly approaching, I wonder how each song will be arranged for a live performance. As always, Crumb is a shining example of how to be original and interesting in today’s day and age of music. Whether it be their first EP or their latest record, they have a signature sound that transcends time and space.

Key Tracks: The Bug, Crushxd, Side by Side, Genie, XXX, AMAMA