Crane Is Coming

Crane Is Coming is the seventh full-length album by Brunanter indie folk rock band The Towners, released on Lebal Records on January 14, 2012.

Crane Is Coming was recorded during the spring of 2011 and co-produced by Lawrence Tucker, making it his fourth time collaborating with The Towners on a full album. It was preceded by The Second Woman, an EP of five album out-takes and one extra track.

Concept and style
Crane Is Coming serves as a prequel to the narrative of the band's 2003 film noir homage Miller Returns, situated in 'Grey City' and focusing on the fictional character named Miller, a prototypical noir antihero.

Miller, desperately in need of money to pay off a debt, decides to partake in a gang robbery. When things go wrong, he faces a terrible fate at the hands of a hit-man called Crane, sent by his creditors. The album's title is taken from the first song with the same name, in which Edward Hennessey sings: "What it all boils down to, is just this one thing / See there's no use in hiding, no point in running / Cause there's this man called Crane and Crane is coming". The story ends with Miller fleeing the city after all, to came back years later in Miller Returns.

Unlike Miller Returns, the tracks on the records are ordered chronologically, though the fact that the story is told in a flashback could cause some confusion. To represent the frantic nature and cracked personality of Miller, and his inner world falling apart, most songs have a undeniably unpolished feel to them, reminiscent of The Towners' earlier work. In addition, transitions between tracks are intentionally botched and some songs end abruptly. Appeal magazine has attributed the album's rough edges to the critique the band received for the mainstream direction taken with their previous work, Patrickson's.

Three songs feature Automotive Jazz Ensemble musician Godmund Culligan, twice playing the saxophone and once on the organ. Although the femme fatale character, 'The Pretty Girl From Downtown', voiced by Lovian singer Abbie Cole on Miller Returns, is also present in the story, Cole herself is not featured on the record, for reasons unknown.

Tracklisting

 * 1) 'Crane Is Coming' - 4:52
 * 2) 'A Killer's Call (Is Murder Around?)' - 5:30
 * 3) 'Two and Two' - 3:58
 * 4) 'Hella Belle' - 3:10
 * 5) 'Dear River' - 3:42
 * 6) 'The Greatest Con' - 3:14
 * 7) 'Fiery Blues' - 3:10
 * 8) 'Down By The Harbor (Into Shambles)'- 4:59
 * 9) 'This Is Why We Run' - 3:50
 * 10) 'Mist Hymn' - 4:17