Juice B Crypts

Guitarist Ian Williams stated that the album is about "chord progressions, resolutions, returning home" but also using a "blender of modern electronic tools like glitching devices" to "regurgitate" "melodic lines and [...] at the same time try and retain harmonic relationships while completely smashing them up".{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/news/battles-announce-new-album-juice-b-crypts-share-new-song-listen/|title=Battles Announce New Album Juice B Crypts, Share New Song: Listen|website=Pitchfork|last=Hussey|first=Allison|date=August 7, 2019|accessdate=October 16, 2019}} Warp described the album as "a sensory overload of information" featuring "synthesizer loops, cut-throat drum patterns, and cyclical riffs".

Yes frontman Jon Anderson, who sings on the track "Sugar Foot", was a fan of Battles and had offered to collaborate with the band. Drummer John Stanier said: "About eight or nine years ago, [Anderson]'s management contacted us or me: 'Jon Anderson from Yes wants you to play drums on one of these songs on his solo record. He is really into Battles.' It didn’t work out timing-wise or whatever. Then Jon Anderson emailed me back and was like, 'Love Battles. By the way, anytime you guys want to do a collabo, let me know. I’ll do vocals'."{{Cite web|url=https://www.altpress.com/features/battles-juice-b-crypts-interview/|title = Battles are America's mediocrity-fighting electronic-rock duo|website = Alternative Press|date = 17 October 2019}}

The title "Juice B Crypts" originated from Williams' two children.{{Cite web|url=https://kaput-mag.com/stories_en/battles-of-course-we-are-fans-of-jazz-but-i-dont-think-it-has-much-to-do-with-the-music-of-battles/|title=Battles: "Of course, we are fans of jazz, but I don't think it has much to do with the music of Battles."}}

{{Music ratings

| ADM = 8.6/10{{cite web |url=http://www.anydecentmusic.com/review/10099/Angel-Olsen-All-Mirrors.aspx |title=All Mirrors by Angel Olsen reviews |publisher=AnyDecentMusic? |accessdate=October 5, 2019}}

| MC = 76/100{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/juice-b-crypts/battles|title=Juice B Crypts by Battles Reviews and Tracks|publisher=Metacritic|accessdate=October 20, 2019}}

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/juice-b-crypts-mw0003308925|title=Juice B Crypts - Battles {{!}} Songs, Reviews, Credits|website=AllMusic|last=Phares|first=Heather|date=October 18, 2019|accessdate=October 20, 2019}}

| rev2 = Exclaim!

| rev2score = 9/10{{cite web|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/battles-juice_b_crypts|title=Battles Juice B Crypts|website=Exclaim!|last=Torrey|first=Owen|date=October 15, 2019|accessdate=October 16, 2019}}

| rev3 = NME

| rev3score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/battles-juice-b-crypts-album-review|title=Battles – 'Juice B Crypts' review: experimental rock that knows how to move your feet|work=NME|last=Richards|first=Will|date=October 15, 2019|accessdate=October 16, 2019}}

| rev4 = Pitchfork

| rev4score = 6.1/10{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/battles-juice-b-crypts/|title=Battles: Juice B Crypts Album Review|website=Pitchfork|last=Currin|first=Grayson Haver|date=October 20, 2019|accessdate=October 21, 2019}}

| rev5 = Slant Magazine

| rev5score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review-battles-juice-b-crypts-is-an-all-out-aural-assault-on-the-senses/|title=Review: Battles's Juice B Crypts Is an All-Out Aural Assault on the Senses|website=Slant Magazine|last=Wilson|first=Seth|date=October 15, 2019|accessdate=October 16, 2019}}

}}

{{Metacritic album prose|Juice B Crypts|generally positive|76|17}} Heather Phares from AllMusic compared the album favourably to the band's oeuvre, claiming that "Battles pack so much into Juice B Crypts that, perhaps more than any of their albums since Mirrored, it needs to be taken as a whole to appreciate its constantly changing, consistently engaging sounds."

Exclaim! critic Owen Torrey called the album "11 tracks of knotty, electronic rock puzzles", and wrote that from the start of the first song, "Ambulance", "Battles are back at the complex craft of building sequences out of repetition, alteration, layering", summarizing that it is "the sound of a band who continue to create after more than a decade — tempered with loss, yes, but also joy, also freedom". Writing for NME, Will Richards felt that Juice B Crypts is "an intricate and complex album that nonetheless bottles the joy and immediacy of the band's best work" as well as one that "indulges the weird and wonderful side of Battles while also, simply, giving the people what they want".

Seth Wilson was more reserved in the review for Slant, stating that the album "occasionally threatens to collapse beneath the weight of its overstuffed songs. But even when it’s too maximalist for its own good, Battles’s music is still compelling." In the review for Pitchfork, Grayson Harver Currin concluded that "Juice B Crypts is anti-gestalt music, where incredible parts are subsumed by wholes that try to do too much. You’re left to wonder if Stanier and Williams feel they have to prove themselves again. Or perhaps they’re aware that the polyglot power that made their early work so powerful is almost passé now, as the lines between genres corrode. Either way, Juice B Crypts is an act of overcompensation from a duo trying to make too much happen with less."

{{Track listing

| title1 = Ambulance

| length1 = 4:20

| title2 = A Loop So Nice...

| length2 = 2:14

| title3 = They Played It Twice

| note3 = featuring Xenia Rubinos

| length3 = 3:09

| title4 = Sugar Foot

| note4 = featuring Jon Anderson & Prairie WWWW

| length4 = 5:18

| title5 = Fort Greene Park

| length5 = 5:45

| title6 = Titanium 2 Step

| note6 = featuring Sal Principato

| length6 = 3:26

| title7 = Hiro 3

| length7 = 1:08

| title8 = Izm

| note8 = featuring Shabazz Palaces

| length8 = 3:36

| title9 = Juice B Crypts

| length9 = 3:56

| title10 = Last Supper on Shasta Pt. 1

| note10 = featuring Tune-Yards

| length10 = 3:52

| title11 = Last Supper on Shasta Pt. 2

| note11 = featuring Tune-Yards

| length11 = 3:55

| total_length = 40:39

}}

Battles

• Ian Williams – keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, effects, abelton push, composer
• John Stanier – drums, percussion, composer

Additional musicians

• Tune-Yards – vocals, instrumentation
• Sal Principato – vocals
• Shabazz Palaces – vocals, instrumentation
• Prairie WWWW – vocals, instrumentation
• Xenia Rubinos – vocals
• Jon Anderson – vocals

Studio personnel

• Heba Kadry – mastering
• Nate Odden – engineering
• Brandon Peralta – engineering, mixing assistant
• Chris Tabron – mixing, producer

Artwork

• Andrew Kuo – artwork
• Caleb Halter – design, layout

{{reflist}}

{{Battles}}

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Category:2019 albums

Category:Battles (band) albums