There’s a certain charm that can only be baked into music made with zero expectations, zero pretense, and a few too many empty bottles rolling across the floor. On ‘This is Only a Test’, North Carolina’s Crooked Cranes turn that energy into a rough-and-tumble debut that feels like a half-forgotten house party with your closest friends; the kind where bad decisions become good stories and everything sounds better through smoke and static.
The EP kicks off with ‘GF’, a distorted punch to the gut that sets the tone early, it’s a little unhinged but completely self-aware. There’s a story in there about betrayal that’s equal parts soap opera and garage rock folklore, but it’s the way they lean into the absurdity that sells it. “You stupid girl”. One minute you’re grappling with emotional whiplash, the next you’re laughing into your beer at the sheer audacity of it all.
From there, the title-track ‘This is Only a Test’ swerves through tones like a busted van with a blown-out stereo: while ‘Mehico’ is pure melody with a fantastic vocal swagger. ‘Dolfin’ slows the tempo, trading bravado for a foggy-eyed encounter with mystery and disconnection, while ‘Interstate Song’ hums with late-night car journey melancholy. Then there’s ‘Met a Gurl’, which lands somewhere between heartbreak anthem and half-drunk therapy session, before the whole thing closes on ‘NeWay’, a love letter to zoning out, turning up, and riding the riff into oblivion.
The EP is stitched together with scuzzy guitars, drawled-out vocals, and an undercurrent of “we made this because we had to” that gives the project its glue. If you’re into Dinosaur Jr. fuzz, the scrappy heart of early Built to Spill, or the ramshackle punch of lo-fi White Stripes recordings, Crooked Cranes will feel like your favorite thrifted flannel.
What makes ‘This is Only a Test’ a hit is the honesty. These tracks sound like they were made where they say they were made: in the same basement that raised them, and broke them. It’s a coming-of-age story told through the lens of smoke breaks and distortion pedals.
Press play, and let Crooked Cranes remind you why music that doesn’t care about being cool usually ends up being the coolest of all.
