back to
Hardly Art
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Crush Crusher

by IAN SWEET

/
  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Crush Crusher on limited edition orange swirl vinyl.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Crush Crusher via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $17 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Crush Crusher on compact disc in a digipak gatefold.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Crush Crusher via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $13 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Crush Crusher on cassette.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Crush Crusher via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
Hiding 02:36 video
2.
Spit 03:14 video
3.
4.
Bug Museum 03:22
5.
Question It 04:01
6.
7.
8.
9.
Ugly/Bored 04:00
10.

about

In writing Crush Crusher, Medford committed herself to exploring her own issues with self-image, self-respect/worth, and the responsibility she has felt to others. Album opener “Hiding” was one of the first songs she wrote for the record while living in a frigid Brooklyn apartment during a winter break amidst her grueling tour schedule. In the song, Medford reflects on an interpersonal relationship that fell apart because of an inability to feel supreme comfort in sharing all the pieces of herself with someone. Nevertheless, a hopeful demeanor shines through on “Hiding” and in her writing across the album, with lyrics that embrace life’s hurdles and make them feel a little less scary.

Much of Crush Crusher’s songs deal with Medford’s internalized pressure to become a caretaker in many of her close friends’ lives. As a defense mechanism for her own insecurities, Medford projects a sense of invincibility and benevolence to feel more deserving of the love received from others; we hear this on “Holographic Jesus” when she repeats the phrase “the sun built me to shade everybody,” characterizing the sacrifice and responsibility she feels in ways that could easily go unnoticed. “Holographic Jesus” ultimately represents a façade of strength that Medford has clung onto and, in true Taurus fashion, is stubborn to let go of.

Musically, Crush Crusher is full of dissonant open chords and abnormal progressions, finding beauty in a level of conflict not seen on Shapeshifter. To help achieve this expansive-but-focused sound, Medford enlisted the help of someone who was just as ambitiously experimental in their approach, producer and engineer Gabe Wax (Deerhunter, The War on Drugs, Soccer Mommy). Medford and Wax set up shop at Rare Book Room studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and completed the basic tracking with musicians Simon Hanes on bass and Max Almario on drums. “Coming into a space where some of my biggest inspirations like Bjork, Dirty Projectors, and Deerhunter had all once also recorded, I felt determined to push myself and test every boundary that I may have subconsciously created along the way. Gabe made me feel comfortable with attempting anything,” Medford says. By the end of the recording process, IAN SWEET wound up with an unconventional assortment of songs featuring disparate elements of psych-rock, trip-hop, and shoegaze that together forged a sound uniquely her own.

credits

released October 26, 2018

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

IAN SWEET

</3 </3 </3
iansweetmusic@gmail.com
mgmt:
justin@outofofficemgmt.com
us pr: jacob@pitchperfectpr.com
uk pr: michelle.kambasha@s-414.com
us booking: max@anniversarygroup.com
... more

shows

contact / help

Contact IAN SWEET

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like IAN SWEET, you may also like: