It's not easy for a new band to generate a healthy buzz on the basis of just one song, but that's what Brooklyn shoegazers Crate did. Back in February 2024, Crate released their lovely, blissed-out debut single "Julia," and it made our list of the year's best shoegaze tracks. It took Crate a solid year to come out with another single. When they dropped their single "Necklace" last year, they wrote, "Swear to god this isn’t the only song you’ll get from us this year." God must be offended because 2025 ended without any more Crate music. But before we reach the end of 2026, their full-length debut will be out in the world.
Crate, which includes members of Shower Curtain and Many Shining Windows, worked on their self-titled debut album for several years, coming up with bits and pieces in apartments and practice studios before finishing it up in the Queens studio run by Shower Curtain's Ethan Williams. Unsurprisingly, "Julia" and "Necklace" are both on the LP. So is "Not My Song (Mine To Keep)," the third Crate song to see release. It's a slow-motion meditation with a tingly guitar line and some lush harmonies, and it's seriously pretty. Here's what band member Cody Hudgins says about it:
This song sort of has two separate meanings. The chorus is about me dealing with getting anxiety everytime I smoke weed. I would smoke and then almost immediately long for the feeling I had five minutes before when I hadn’t smoked. Kind of goes hand in hand telling myself I’ll wake up early and then disappointing myself when I inevitably sleep in late.
The lyrics in the chorus of this song are very literal. The verse, though, is about a relationship I had before moving to New York about five years ago and is more emotional for sure. There’s some feelings of helplessness and loving someone so much but realizing that you may not be able to help them in their journey of finding themselves. These are all feelings and experiences that really helped me grow as a person and I have a lot of appreciation for that time in my life. Really proud of how this song shaped up. It used to be a lot heavier and louder but we decided one day to turn it around and make it a lot slower and softer, which I love. It’s probably my favorite song on the album.
Check out that song and the Crate tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "The Night Before"
02 "Over Before The Start"
03 "Necklace"
04 "Not My Song (Mine To Keep)"
05 "Not My Outro"
06 "I Don't"
07 "Julia"
08 "Watch You Turn"
09 "Double Stitch"
10 "Crate Theme"
11 "Crushed To Nothing"
Crate is out 11/13 on Good English. Pre-order it here.
