The Crystal Fighters // Cave Rave

Question: what do the Beach Boys, Will Smith and the Smashing Pumpkins have in common? Answer: they all sound like summer. To me, anyway, but we can all relate, right? Whether it was the album we heard at college over and over one summer, or the two cassettes that were rattling around in the glove box of your first car when you road-tripped for the first time, or even that time you partied in the city where the heat is on, all night on the beach till the break of dawn… ok, so some of them are just forced upon you by national radio, but still become integrally linked with good times and sunshine. This summer, however, you could do a lot worse than slap Cave Rave on your iThing because this is an entire album of days in the sun and nights around campfires.

Less ‘synthy’ than their 2010 debut Star of Love, the Fighters take a different direction to the folk-meets-electronica sound that made people listen, this is less of a dance album and more of a record for all occasions. The album opens with ‘Wave’, which is perhaps the most familiar sounding to fans, yet manages to tease at the different sounds within and leads into second track ‘LA Calling’, an acoustic, indie sing-along classic that makes you reach for the BBQ rather than the lasers. There are a couple of songs that sound like their previous album, such as ‘Separator’ and ‘Are We One’, but these don’t interrupt the flow and they’re too good to leave out.