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Crack Cloud: Red Mile review – aggressively tuneful rock about life’s big questions
The Canadian indie-garage-rockers take the mickey out of pop, punk and the stories we tell ourselves, but strong feeling outweighs the cynicism
Trite metaphors, tortured similes and outright cliches are, ahem, ten a penny in today’s pop lyrics – so how refreshing to have Zach Choy, bandleader with Canadian indie curveballs Crack Cloud, writing with such wit, bite and the kind of perfectly scanning rhyme you get in the best sea shanties or children’s literature. Cover art for Red Mile.Crack Cloud have had a shifting lineup over the past decade and two previous albums, and the band match Choy’s ambition, playing a singular kind of maximalist garage rock decked out with synths, saxophones, strings and singalongs. Almost aggressively tuneful, The Medium pits the enjoyable but shallow world of pop and rock (“It’s a song about Billy, yeah he’s gone downtown / But to his surprise Sally’s not around” is his withering summation of the genres’ lyricism) against punk, which ends up being just as commercialised: “Who would’ve thought that the socially reclusive / Could be exploited for industry usage?” Crack of Life is a sarky knees-up about humankind’s arrogance, to a lo-fi reggaeton shuffle: “Come all ye, join us / Let’s all have some fun / From microbe to the Matrix / We’ll outlive our sun!” But despite being jaded, Choy can’t help but try to say something with his music: “Overdose on thinking, yeah a casualty of art / Fountain of Bellagio beating in my heart,” he sings on Epitaph.
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