Clipd Beaks To Realize
Calling an album “mature” is often a death knell for creativity and excitement, but in […]
Calling an album “mature” is often a death knell for creativity and excitement, but in the case of To Realize, it’s good thing. Clipd Beaks have never been tied to traditional songwriting—their 2006 Preyers EP and 2007 full-length, Hoarse Lords, were both cacophonous collections of spastic yelps and unruly bursts of noise—but To Realize is downright epic. Crafting spacious soundscapes, taking droney vision quests into ’70s psychedelia, and offering pleasantly subdued vocals, the Oakland trio appears to have found solid footing as a band of new-school doom-rock warriors. Liars’ last few records are an easy reference point, yet Clipd Beaks prefer hazy dirge to nightmarish sonic assaults—the world may be coming to an end, but these guys aren’t here to bum you out.