“Crush” by Ward – A Song Review

     With the percussive drive and New York sensibilities of one the better LCD Soundsystem offerings, Ward delivers “Crush.” Ward left New York in 2016 for Los Angeles, which is the area used as a metaphor for life’s difficulties:

So your foot sits baking on the metal,

On the crawl from La Brea to the 10

And the sun keeps cutting through the palm trees,

And the cars keep cutting in.

     Ward explains “Crush” as a representation of the division between who we are in our daily lives and who we want to be. He is donating 100% of the sales of “Crush” this year to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for millions of Americans.

     The track is continuously high energy, but the stepped momentum build that begins at 1:32 is particularly praiseworthy. The first step is a shift in percussion at 1:46, while the following contributions are changes in the pattern of the breathy “Haa” and the forcefulness of the lead vocals. The listener is delivered to a more invigorated level at 2:12.

      Christopher Grant Ward played all of the instruments for “Crush,” other than the drums. The track was recorded over a five-day period at White Star Sound outside of Charlottesville, Virginia with production by Chris Keup (Parachute, Sanders Bohlke, Jason Mraz) and mixing by Darrell Thorpe (Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Beck, Air).

     “Crush” by Ward 

Website: http://ward.band/

Lyrics of “Crush” by Ward

I see you're alone,

I see you get crushed down the middle

You must know,

Everyone's got something

So hate this

And save this

You're a success,

You confess,

When you slide to the left,

Or leave it alone,

Why you ever got to go.

Get crushed?

Get crushed?

I'll let you go,

Just swear to stay out of the middle

Find a home,

Everyone's got that one thing

They save this,

And hate this

You're a success,

You confess,

When you slide to the left,

Or leave it alone,

So why you ever got to go?

Get crushed, get crushed,

Crushed between the city and the setting sea

Get crushed, get crushed, get crushed

Oh, get crushed

You get crushed in the middle of the city,

In your car hundred-ten degrees

You get rushed all around this busy,

But you can't get where you need

So your foot sits baking on the metal,

On the crawl from La Brea to the 10

And the sun keeps cutting through the palm trees,

And the cars keep cutting in

Feel the crush in the middle of the city,

And the push to the western sea

You can move through all the middle of a city,

But you'll never get what you need

So hate this,

And save this

You're a success,

You confess,

When you slide to the left,

Or leave it alone,

I don’t really want to go

Get crushed, get crushed,

Crushed between the city and the setting sea

Get crushed, get crushed,

Crushed between the city and the setting sea

Get crushed, get crushed,

Crushed between the city and the setting sea

Get crushed, get crushed, get crushed

Oh, get crushed