Like X-ray…
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[6.57]
Alex Clifton: The chorus of “Crushing” feels like the shock of cold water against bare feet as you jump into a pool. What’s surprising is how easily it goes down. The production is chilled and comes in waves, building and building. Creating and sustaining a mood like this can be difficult, but the more it continues the more it plays out like obsessive, overwhelming thoughts that happen whenever you have a crush. It’s taking a deeper dive into the emotion, capturing those moments when you feel like you might drown in your feelings but don’t mind it at all. It’s mesmerizing.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: Melancholic guitar, perfumed-air vocals, and wistful crushing — all very much my sort of thing. It reminds me of Cat Power, Cortney Tidwell, Sophie Zeyl, and a lot of other singer-songwriters I’m not reminded of nearly enough.
[8]
Vikram Joseph: There are shades of Cat Power and Tramp-era Sharon Van Etten on this stark, oblique break-up song, which gains much of its power from its dense, claustrophobic production: the soft minor-key churn of acoustic guitars echoing the dull hum of traffic on a street several storeys below on a restless city night. Elena Tonra’s vocals move through the fog like a blade, before turning in on themselves in circling phrases whose detachment (“a lesson in humans using machines”; “sleepless, wandering the earth”) scarcely blunts the raw hurt that lies beneath them. There’s a feeling of impending, irrevocable emotional wreckage contained within the thin walls of this song, only heightened by the sombre flicker of descending, high-fret guitar notes over its closing moments; it closes in like a vice.
[7]
Josh Love: A lovesick sigh about missed opportunities and other romantic fumbles that smartly pivots on the 21st century roadblock of “attention spans … lessening / It’s a lesson in humans using machines/To show their feelings” (points for that poetic doubling of “lessening” and “lesson”). Unfortunately, “Crushing” can’t escape the weight of its influences, its PJ Harvey-esque churn and especially the shadow of Cat Power.
[5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: On the lyrical end, “Crushing” is badly struck impressionism, collecting a few poignant notes and moments but bundling in with them some tired points on cell phones and lost love. Yet even from that mess, Ex:Re claims a mild victory, with a track with such compelling rhythms and haunting vibes that it almost tricked me into thinking it was well-written.
[6]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: “Crushing” touches on technology’s deleterious effects on one’s attention span, marrying it to a sense of unease regarding one’s capability of finding love. While there’s been much talk about technology’s contribution to hookup culture, Elena Tonra acknowledges its downside: in an age of instant gratification, one needs to act quickly if wanting to find intimacy. “Crushing” primarily works because it’s really just a song about anxiety. The constant guitar strumming captures that never-ending misery.
[6]
Alfred Soto: At first the standard issue strumming gets wearying. Then Ex:Re demands to know what her love will do with their mouth — things get interesting. She harmonizes with herself, shares decent aperçus, coos like a lovelorn pigeon. Speed it up and it’s Throwing Muses.
[7]