Crawlers – ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ review: energetic alt-rockers seize the moment

15 February, 2024

crawlers

There’s something in the water of the River Mersey. In the past few years, a flurry of rough and ready guitar music has taken the Liverpool scene by storm, with bands like STONE and The Mysterines rapidly breaking out of the UK. Also at the heart of this movement are Crawlers, whose collection of alt-rock scorchers – which often veer towards stadium-sized emo and grunge – earned them a major record deal with Polydor [Sam Fender, Holly Humberstone].

READ MORE: Crawlers: Merseyside misfits making striking alt-rock with a powerful message

Yet, it’s the quartet’s remarkable relationship with their fanbase (known as the ‘Creepy Crawlers’) that is perhaps their biggest victory. At their liberating, highly emotional live performances, you’ll find fans queuing round the block from the early hours, a level of dedication you’d typically associate with Yungblud and My Chemical Romance – both of whom have previously invited the band to support them on tour.

Many listeners can cite the 2021 single ‘Come Over (Again)’ – which has racked up over 50 million Spotify streams – as their introduction to the band. Having brought the curtain down on their live shows ever since, it’s only right that this defining song finds a home on Crawlers’ debut album ‘The Mess We Seem To Make.’

There’s a similar anthemic nature to ‘Kiss Me’, juxtaposing its intimacy with soaring guitar passages and the intensity of Liv Kettle’s bassline. The pace ramps up on ‘Hit It Again’, its heavy chorus guaranteed to incite mosh pits at future gigs. Departing from the band’s tour de force approach to their 2022 mixtape ‘Loud Without Noise’, this collection gives its material much more room to breathe, allowing Holly Minto’s earnest vocal delivery to take centre stage.

Fundamentally, this is a record that embraces the harsh truths of loneliness and old wounds, clearer than ever on the murky ‘End Up Alone’ or the fabulously-titled ‘Would You Come To My Funeral’; on the latter, Minto adopts a biting, impactful tone to assure the person in question that “there’s a seat laid out for you.”

Yet, there are also more poignant and beautiful moments on ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’: the guitar line of ‘Kills Me To Be Kind’ is so euphoric, it’s as though it could single-handedly lift someone out of a rut. Above all else, Crawlers reaffirm their place as one of the young guiding lights in British guitar music.