Boardwalk :: "Crying"

Channeling bits of the chord progression aesthetic of Arcade Fire's "Ocean of Noise", Los Angeles duo Boardwalk meander languidly through latest offering "Crying". A simple existential crisis lies at the center: "There's no use in trying/ when I can't stop crying," sings vocalist Amber Quintero. The rhythm guitar plods ahead even as a second guitar line emerges to solo in the bridge. It's wholesale elegy, a discomfiture running deep enough to throw a late afternoon chill over the whole arrangement. The sadness would be crushing if the malaise weren't so complete, and the power of "Crying" is its paralysis.