REVIEWS

A glittery and precious geode whose crystals are etched out of fragility, insecurity, and humanity's emotional underbelly. It transcends limits and expectations, and becomes something more beautiful, sensual, and meaningfulthan the sum of its parts. Has the intensity of a diary. Words seemed plucked from that perfect place of passionate immediacy and desperation. - Pop Matters

The stunning result is enough to make you wish it were night all day long.- Pitchfork

Like something beautiful was pulled from the heavens and broken into several tiny pieces.-Shredding Paper

A record for a melancholy autumn spent gazing at unreachable stars.-Opuszine

The kind of passion rarely heard on pop records.-Devil in the Woods

Creates a meditative mood and sticks to it. Despite the languid pace of the songs,things don't get dull. Gautreau imbues his sound with such feeling and grace that it's hard to let go. Utterly seductive. That sound. It is the sound that really makes this disc. A certain echo in that guitar, the way the keyboards add just the right touch. Almost everything on this album has a delicate touch, to the extent that even the slightest heavy hand could ruin things. That doesn't happen. This album could not be forced. It simply had to flow, and it does. Crushed Stars has made music of uncommon elegance. Its muted dramatics are as moving as the most bombastic symphony. Utterly moving. -Aiding and Abetting

There's a certain amount of stigma attached to the world of indie pop; far too many people have the attitude that it is self-indulgent and disposable. Yet there is something so incredibly honest about lo-fi guitar pop that wears everything on its sleeve, and that is exactly what Crushed Stars do. Self Navigation is a quiet, fragile album with songs that proceed at slightly more than a snail's pace - the upbeat moments are few and far between, and even on songs such as "Exit Wound" there is still a healthy dose of melancholy lurking in the lyrics. Musically, the album is sparse with Gautreau's guitar dominating the majority of the songs, while a few are fleshed out with some keyboards (impersonating trumpets and horns), but it is the quietness of Self Navigation that will stay will you after the CD stops spinning. It doesn't sound unlike the former Sarah Records band Brighter, or Trembling Blue Stars, with songs that walk along the tightrope between depressing and indifferent, never quite falling on one side or the other. Self Navigation is not one of those records that will have you singing along with every song; you might not even find yourself humming the tunes for days afterwards, but as you listen, you'll find yourself completely transfixed by Crushed Stars' beautiful music.-EXCLAIM

What would happen if somebody took one of those jazzy post-rock lead guitar lines -- the sort of inquisitive, repetitive guitar figure practiced by second-generation instrumentalists like 33.3 -- and grafted it onto a low key folk-pop song? Crushed Stars apparently decided to find out, and the results are surprisingly impressive. Rather than hanging loosely on a minimalist framework and struggling desperately to engage your interest, these probing guitar lines find themselves resting on a bed of simple pop strumming, with low-key, confessional male vocals wrapping the package nicely (imagine a late-night jam with China Crisis and a few of the more responsible members of Tortoise). The combination of elements makes for a listening experience that's charged with subtle nuance; rather than wondering where, if anywhere, the song is going, you'll marvel at the difference between these playing styles and the ease with which they interact. When additional instruments are employed, such as the wind section used for "Gordon", the canvas is stretched even further; conversely. Most importantly, it's clear that Crushed Stars didn't set out to make a self-involved sonic experiment. They set out to make an enjoyable, unusual pop album, and they succeeded. - Splendid

Intimate, elegant bedroom pop. Songs that gently go their own way, not expecting you to notice. If and when you do, you can't turn away.. - Observer

Mysterious and poetic... a pop-no-mans-land - Crud Magazine