Some bands bank on being difficult, building thought experiments disguised as songs. Like their post-punk peers in Courting before them, Crack Cloud are happy for us to decide whether they’re geniuses awaiting a Nobel Prize or the result of a high school science project gone wrong.
‘Red Mile’ — named after the downtown district of Calgary that the band returned to from Vancouver ahead of recording — is a nuanced, complex record that shies away from easy answers, to its immense benefit.
On one hand, Zach Choy and his Broken Social Scene-sized collective sound like they’re finally cracking up. Lack Of Lack’s psychedelic desert blues blurs the boundaries between the best day of your life and a bad trip, while the opener, Crack Of Life, rides a rollercoaster one too many times for unsteady stomachs.
On the other hand, Crack Cloud sound like they’ve done a Black Country, New Road by retconning their riotous past, waving goodbye to their roadrunner urgency in order to devote themselves to pastoral living through songs that breathe and evolve in real time.
Ballad Of Billy’s shock-to-the-system saxophone is locked in a power struggle with discordant, lo-fi vocals, sending shivers down the spine, while The Medium is The Clash cosplaying as Bennie & The Jets era Elton John, complete with school disco synth-pop-meets-rock vibes.
Equally, ‘Red Mile’ is a personal piece. Choy and Emma Acs’ lyrics encapsulate the discordant experiences of growing up, leaving, and then returning home to a place, and the sense of belonging so many struggle with, whether that’s in music or through dependency on certain things, like drugs, that we use to attempt to belong to someone, or somethin. “I'm the one to call when you're in trouble, a fix from me is armour that you wear through your veins and lungs,” runs Lack of Lack.
But by the time you’ve completed Lost On The Red Mile’s marathon eight minutes, you’re left basking in an addictive runner’s high. Throbbing basslines and thrumming organs to-and-fro, monochromatic mellotron movements melt and a collective stream of consciousness is sung out by Choy and Acs, leaving no doubt that Crack Cloud are very, very clever indeed.
Crack Cloud Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Wed September 25 2024 - LONDON KOKO
Thu September 26 2024 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Fri September 27 2024 - GLASGOW Stereo
Sun September 29 2024 - DUBLIN Whelans
Mon September 30 2024 - MANCHESTER Gorilla
Tue October 01 2024 - BRISTOL Lost Horizon
Wed October 02 2024 - BRIGHTON Chalk, Brighton
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
