Less

After slowcore outfit deathcrash's 2022 album 'Return' acted as the soundtrack of my GCSE revision sessions alongside caroline's self-titled LP, 'Less' quickly became one of my most highly anticipated albums of 2023.

I wasn't disappointed.

At half the length, I obviously wasn't expecting the 1-hour+ experience that 'Return' gave, but at times, that record dragged on. But honestly, I think having 'Less' be any more than another track longer than it is would make it too long.

'Less' doubles down on the foundations that deathcrash laid out with 'Return', but unfortunately not much more than that. One good thing about having less tracks is that each of them shine individually. With 'Return', an overall runtime of over an hour across 12 songs mixed with an overall pretty samey sound palette made for amazing background music, but not so much for an album to pick a song from and just listen, or for an album that was easily relistenable without dedicating a chunk of time to it. Thankfully, 'Less' improves on this, releasing 8 solid, not-too-long tracks that can be enjoyed both in and out of the context of the album.

This album isn't anything more than what I expected it to be, but it's not any "less" either (laugh). It's a solid slowcore record.