Catchy pop from these New Yorkers – named after an infamous prohibition era speakeasy, no less.
After a few years in the indie wilderness it looked as if things were picking up for the band until lead singer J’s apartment burnt down, taking the group’s equipment with it. However, amongst a lifetime’s collection of charcoal lurked a badly damaged hard-drive, and after a frantic visit to PC World these tunes were fortunately recovered.
Lead single “Hey Now Now” earned the band a cult following, and its easy to see why with its leering Bowie grin. A set of stadium anthems in the making, the band seem to have channelled years of frustration into an album which doesn’t so much uplift the listener as blast them into the stratosphere.
The climactic “Sunlight Reprise” sets the scene, with the band urging the listener to ‘go down and find it’, against a backdrop of guitars that sound like Interpol on prozac. Whilst the phoenix from the flames atmosphere can grate at times, this is a strong debut full of desire and ambition. In this time of musical prohibition, when heart and soul can seem like banned commodities, it’s well worth a visit to the Cloud Room.
