In the Randomised Record series, I take us both on an adventure to (re)discover my record collection. Fate decides: whether it be that obscure grunge album I bought recently or that emo rap record from 2017. Nothing is safe from the hands of the randomiser! I will listen to the entire album and highlight my favourite song off of it here on the blog. Do I still enjoy my records as much as when I bought ‘em? Let’s find out.

Of course, with the randomiser constantly randomising every single record in my collection, there’s always a possibility that it will choose one of the records I’d just written about. However, I didn’t expect that to happen so soon already. Only a few days after I’d talked about King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s ‘K.G’., the randomiser chose this one once more for me to review. Ha! Well, I don’t feel like reviewing the same record twice this month (and I’m sure you don’t either), so I guess we’ll have to try again. See what will be spat out now. Alright, here goes. For real this time. Here’s episode 10: ‘Beware Believers’ (2022) by Crows.

Fiery live act Crows got welcomed into my record collection one day after seeing them live at the iconic Grauzone Festival in The Hague, back in June 2022. I had seen the post-punk act earlier that year in Amsterdam’s Paradiso too, a mere 7 years after seeing them live for the first time playing a support slot for Canadian punkers Metz in a smaller venue in Amsterdam. Safe to say I was already quite familiar with their great shows and clearly their set at Grauzone didn’t disappoint either. Why else would I buy both a record and a cool t-shirt, as well having a brief chat with singer James Cox who was pleasantly surprised I remembered their support slot on the Metz gig, ha!

Listening to their 2nd album ‘Beware Believers’ after all this time sadly confirms what I was already a bit afraid of back in the day. Whereas Crows is a truly great band who I’d probably go see at every festival I attend, their music just doesn’t seem to stick with me. Don’t get me wrong: I truly enjoy listening to this album and I’m very pleased I own a copy of it too, but for some reason it’s just not as memorable as I’d hoped. Perhaps that’s why Crows never really enjoyed a proper breakthrough. Of course, their music resonates to quite a specific audience but comparing them to acts like Protomartyr, shame, or more recent Gurriers and perhaps even IDLES, Crows just never seemed to be able to squeeze themselves between those acts. Funny enough, my eye caught this record the other day and as I was staring at it I told myself I should play it more often. Listening to it now, I wonder if that’s indeed all it needs. Just a few more plays before I will truly start to enjoy it. Well, I suppose this is a great start. Better late than never.