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Rating: In summary: a band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, led by Craig Minowa, on their fifth album. Nineteen tracks, American indie-rock style, between Modest Mouse, Beck, The Broken Family Band, Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel. Great variety, a rich array of instruments, use of synths and electronic drums, although sharp Modest Mouse-like riffs predominate (as in the pleasant "Please Remain Calm"), occasionally softened by bells, choirs, and Minowa's childlike voice ("Chemicals Collide"). Songs are often short, very quirky, which sometimes seem to slip out of the band's hands like balloons, with inspiration wandering elsewhere. But the moments of stagnation, on balance, are scarce, and even the tracks that seem more confused and tangled regularly find their redemption.
It is clear that this is a band from the extreme underground, so much so that if you order their CD at a store with imported material, you still have to wait for some gray hairs of resignation to grow before you can enjoy the satisfaction of touching it. You will find, however, a colorful and woody object, since Cloud Cult supports an ecological label with commendable commitment. It is also clear that the meaning of 'eight' remains unattainable, as the essence of the album, revolving around philosophical and religious themes, then ends up struggling with unsettling regularity over the theme of loss: Minowa lost his two-year-old son in 2002 for inexplicable reasons, at night; this led to an immediate divorce from his wife.
Every album by Cloud Cult is an obsessive attempt to reconstruct meaning around things, from the most domestic to, as here, the most symbolic. This is why their indie-rock often takes on, perhaps even for just ten seconds, a chilling and disturbed aura, like when something resurfaces in the mind that you immediately try to push away. Listen to "2×2×2", for instance, when the drums suddenly thicken, becoming monolithic, like the distortion of a nightmare. Or the spectacular "A Girl Underground", where a flute accompanies a fleeting tale about love between the living and the dead.
The last track on the album, "Song Of The Deaf Girl", consists of a minute and a half of silence; the first time you hear it, if someone hasn't already told you (as I've done) that it's a minute and a half of silence, you remain constantly expecting something to happen at some point, because in all the other tracks there's a hidden surprise, a mutation, a deviation, in a very Arcade Fire style (see "Pretty Voice"). You expect the deaf girl to miraculously hear something (or to produce something? Is the song written by or listened to by the deaf girl? Or does it talk about her?). When you hear that annoying sound of the CD reaching its end and getting angry with the stereo (pss), expectations collapse. Nothing ever happens. For a moment, you think the album is made up of eighteen songs. But then you think, no, the songs are nineteen. There's always the final twist. The meaning of 8.
Beyond any philosophy: an original album.
Freddy fell in love with a girl underground
He was only 8 years old when he started digging down
Singing "I love you more than you know"
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Chain Reaction (04:28)
You have eyes like mine
Are we strangers or am I you are I
Put your face on mine
Put your face on mine
What you feel makes part of what they'll feel
It's a chain reaction
Put out fear and they'll feel fear
It's a chain reaction
Put out love and they'll feel love
It's a chain reaction
Put your face on mine
Put your face on mine
03 Chemicals Collide (03:16)
I was out paying close attention, or was I lost inside my thoughts?
These days it's hard to tell what's outside from what's in my mind.
But, oh God, it's beautiful and insatiable the way our chemicals collide.
I was out catching up to tomorrow, or was I caught up in the past?
These days it's hard to tell what's out in front from what's behind.
But, oh God, it's unforgettable and unpredictable the way our chemicals collide.
I was sleeping in the lilies, or was I up all night?
These days it's hard to tell what's half asleep from fully alive.
We were loving like a landslide, or were we in a fight?
These days it's hard to tell what's right from wrong and wrong from right.
And oh God, it's beautiful and insatiable the way our chemicals collide
And oh God, it's unforgettable and unpredictable the way our chemicals collide.
04 Pretty Voice (03:45)
A scene begins
With our next melody
Sung by a bashful bird
Humming a violet sky
There are no words
But there is understanding
It's been so long
Since I've heard that pretty voice
Raise up our lights
And enter hero girl
She makes me calm
God, she makes me calm
When she hears the song
And she starts singing
It's been so long
Since I've heard that pretty voice
Strike up the band
Here comes the storyline
About the usual struggle
Between fear and love
This is the lifelong song
That we're all singing
It's been so long
Since I've heard that pretty voice
Now it begins
I miss your harmony
But you're so sure
Such a bashful bird
Here's a song
But no one's singing
It's been so long
Since I've heard your pretty voice
07 Your 8th Birthday (04:06)
Who could hang a dead man's swing-set from the moon yeah
You did
Then you gave it
To the ghosts and
The witches
Who can say goodbye with a yodel-ay-hee-hoo yeah
You did
With the promise
That the dead are now magicians
This hymn rings with the singing of three cheers
For the king of the jungle gym
He's the kid who swore it is a one handshake
A birthday cake imitation
You make traffic jams feel like parades
You bury the dead with the faith
That makes lightning bugs swarm
As if it was graduation
Who could change your silly life into a screaming supernova?
You do
Who could change my sleepy brain into the eye of a hurricane?
15 Thanks (03:45)
It's 4-o'clock in the morning
And I am staring at the ceiling plaster
A movie screen of all my days
That came and left with grace
It's Halloween and the smell of burning
Pumpkin takes me back through all the
People I have dressed up as
To tell myself I have a pretty soul
And it is so wonderful
It is so wonderful
Beautiful
And I give thanks to my youthful days
Of grass-stained knees and trick-or-treat face
I pray I'll find as innocent a place
When I am 88
And I give thanks to my present day
It just got here so please don't go away
I finally see it's what I choose to make
I choose to make it into gold
And it is so wonderful
Beautiful
I give thanks to my youthful days
Of grass-stained knees and trick-or-treat face
I pray I'll find as innocent a place
When I am 88
And I give thanks to my present day
It just got here so please don't go away
I finally see it's what I choose to make
And I choose to make it into gold
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