Crumb Shares Tenured Labor of Love in New Album, 'AMAMA'

Psychedelic rock quartet, Crumb, returns with a masterfully crafted universe of eclectic sounds and heart-felt sentiments.

The Brooklyn-based group, composed of Lila Ramani (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist), Bri Aronow (keyboardist and saxophonist), Jesse Brotter (bassist), and Jonathan Gilad (percussionist), began collaborating while attending Tufts University together. After several years of playing and living together, the Crumb EP was born in 2016, and just a year later, the Locket EP emerged. Although independently released, the band’s debut immediately made waves. Complex psychedelic arrangements paired with Ramani’s lullaby vocals quickly captivated critics and cultivated an organic fanbase. 

Following 2021’s Ice Melt, Crumb has taken their time to ensure they returned with nothing short of a masterpiece. AMAMA, like the rest of their discography, showcases the expertise of each contributing musician. This album is exceptionally precise and well-thought-out. In true Crumb fashion, there are endless details to discover on each re-listen of any given track. What sets this body of work apart, however, is the way in which the band was un-careful. 

For Crumb, the experimental sound and artistic world-building on AMAMA make it clear they’ve ventured out into uncharted territory. Without a doubt, the risk has paid off.

Last year they released “Crushxd” and “Dust Bunny”, both of which appear on the album. “Crushxd”’s disorienting time signature sets the backdrop for the story of a turtle who gets crushed in the road. As depicted in the music video, this tale references the weight of being constantly on the road for tour. In “Dust Bunny”, we hear a cyclical ebb and flow of the backing instrumentals throughout, supporting Ramani as they sing, expressing anxiety about an uncertain future: “How long ‘til it comes? / Pull the weight off my tongue”.

This year, we got two more singles prior to the album’s release: a track called “The Bug”, and the title track,”AMAMA”. On “The Bug”, Ramani depicts waking up with a bug bite and being unable to shake it from their thoughts. Over an eerie refrain, Ramani repeats, “It’s always on my mind / It’s just always on my mind”.

The namesake of the album, on the other hand, is a deeply personal, upbeat love song built around the sound of Ramani’s amama (grandmother), Leela, singing in Malayalam. The stand-alone sample is played at the start of the track, followed by a slow build-up to a bouncy, danceable rhythm. Ramani sings tenderly about love and longing. While closing a reprising verse with, “You look so good between these arms / Do anything to keep you warm / And right my wrongs”, an electric sitar melody builds until the rest of the instrumentals eventually give way to it, allowing it to repeat unaccompanied. A spotlight shines on Ramani plucking this hypnotic lick for eight measures before Gilad kicks the drums back into action, leading us to the song’s conclusion. “AMAMA”’s unconventional structure, personal theming, and patchwork of sounds make it the perfect representation of the album, and this era of Crumb’s artistry as a whole.

Album Art by Abraham Mohamed El Makawy and Kalle Wadzinski.

New with the album’s release, the opening track, “From Outside a Window Sill” features a sample of a police radio scan describing a flock of geese crossing a bridge in Brooklyn, where Ramani was raised. This imagery is depicted on the cover art of the album, further solidifying the attention to personal detail woven into this concept project. Among the eclecticism, the most quintessential piece of psychedelia within the album has to be “Genie”. It begins with a bright, head-nodding sequence, underlaid by an ascending piano melody and embellished with birds chirping. Throughout the almost six-minute track, it winds and intensifies in and out of madness before stripping back the other layers and ending with the isolated melody. The closer, “XXX” is an amalgamation of diverse electronic sounds that defy any labeling previously placed on the band. A repeating cut-and-paste sample, undulating bass, and an unorthodox array of metallic percussive sounds trudge this number along. In the final words of the album, Ramani asks, “Isn’t this as good as it can get?”.

Released independently under Crumb Records, AMAMA is an honest ode to the grounding power of love and connection while enduring unrelenting change. Crumb will be going on tour in the U.S. beginning in late summer. Listen to the album below.