Buzz warning in effect! Watch out for extreme buzz! The attack of the Incredible Velvet Shrinking Grizzly Management Band is under way! Australia’s Cloud Control are on the radars of a great many music fans and critics, but is this attention warranted? A young band of psycho-derelicts, Cloud Control’s Bliss Release is a 21st century flower child nostalgia trip.
The album’s best songs are the first two, “Meditation Song #2 (Why, Oh Why)” and “There’s Nothing in the Water We Can’t Fight.” Both songs manage to walk the line between hippie parody and cosmic breakthrough. “Meditation Song #2 (Why, Oh Why)” is foot stomping jug band music melded to fuzzed out freak rock with the intertwining harmonies of guitarist Alister Wright and keyboardist Heidi Lenffer spinning above the fray. The sound is that of college kids taking mushrooms on a farm at sunset.”There’s Nothing in the Water We Can’t Fight” is a breezy bounce of a song with an immediately catchy and memorable vocal. This track fits this year’s summer festival scene ‘to a T’ and Cloud Control are aware of it.
Then the band starts to stumble. The middle of the album is all shine and no substance. None of the material at this point is terrible, but bells and whistles falter under the influence of heroes and peers. Towards the end of the record the worst offenders raise their voices. “The Rolling Stones” is forgettable in a way Keef and Co. have never been and rustic slices like, “Hollow Drum” fail to leave much of an impact. “My Fear #1″ redeems the album somewhat as the closing track, but overall this is only an adequate debut. In the end Cloud Control‘s Bliss Release is far too derivative too be worthy of the instant classic status some music writers are bestowing upon it.
[...] Review: Cloud Control – Bliss Release “Meditation Song #2 (Why, Oh Why)” is foot stomping jug band music melded to fuzzed out freak rock with the intertwining harmonies of guitarist Alister Wright and keyboardist Heidi Lenffer spinning above the fray. The sound is that of college kids … Read more on eBurban [...]