THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO…SPIDERS – Crystal Eyes (Wild Kingdom)

There are many reasons for wanting to play in a band, but generally it’s either to educate, instigate or entertain, and Gothenburg’s Spiders fall very much into the final category. Having taken 13 years to release their first four albums their fifth outing ‘Crystal Eyes’ follows hard on the heels of last year’s ‘Sharp Objects’ and is a power pop masterpiece. Vocalist Ann-Sofie Hoyles, guitarists John Hoyles and Rickard Hellgren, bassist Alex Mayr and drummer Oskar Brindmark have come up with ten songs written as if they’d been sitting with their eyes taped open ‘A Clockwork Orange’–style in front of endless re-runs of ‘Top Of The Pops’ (as the video for the title track clearly evidences). Channelling the very essence 70s’ pop, with Blondie and the Ramones thrown in and just a hint of Michael Monroe, ‘Crystal Eyes’ is a high-octane shot of infectious rock ’n’ roll with ten toe-tapping, short ’n’ snappy, easy-to-assimilate songs all done and dusted in just 35 minutes. It may not be to everyone’s taste, and the ‘(Doomed To A) Life Of Misery’ duet will make a good toilet break if they play it on next year’s UK tour with fellow Swedes Blues Pills and Graveyard, but the likes of ‘Quit You’, ‘Playing With Fire’ and that irresistible, funky title track (which to these aging ears appears to owe its verse to The Move’s ‘Flowers In The Rain’) are just too alluring for words.

photo by Julia Moon

Video Clip:
‘Crystal Eyes’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQsMQYkrYlw

John Tucker September 2026