There's something in the face of that young man, donning a homemade crown, as the album art that says everything about the Crystal Shipsss EP. The crown bares similiarity to the one drawn in the children's book Where The Wild Things Are, also a borrowed title in the opening track of the EP. There's a J. Spaceman quality to Crystal Shipsss lone player, Jacob Faurholt that suggests he's been countering doldrums with the escape of imagination for a lifetime. Spaceman sought the solar systems, while Faurholt is in the dark forests, where the shadows are spaces for the creative mind to fill in and where a bit of kiddish terror leaks in.
In an all too fleeting 13-minutes, Faurholt lets a Daniel Johnston song ruin his afternoon, compares a crushing feeling to a skull beneath the tires of a four-wheeler, and weighs the options of jumping from a third story window or screening Night of the Creeps. The details of Faurholt's life inform his writing, from Johnston to Maurice Sendak, to a point they deserve shout outs in the liner notes. You get the feeling were it not for the bookshelf, the record collection, or the Spike Jonze adaptation getting reccommended on Netflix, that Faurholt would have gone to a much darker place, but his favorite things beat him to the punch.
The Crystal Shipsss EP is available on limited cassette in Europe via Mouca on Bandcamp and Three Rings in the U.S. The digital release is handled by Raw Onion.
