Album Review: Red Mile by Crack Cloud

Armed with a playful adventurism and a smorgasbord of eclectic indie rock influences, Red Mile, the fourth album by Vancouver-based art rock collective Crack Cloud, plays out with an offbeat synergy of melodic weirdness and unconventional dynamism that could be an acquired taste for some. It is not the most groundbreaking sound musically but certainly modern in approach and original in delivery. But it's the inconsistency of the homespun vocals--and slightly out-of-tune warblings--that may have some reaching for the skip button.

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Crack Cloud have been softening a touch over the years; the pained spikiness that charged their initial releases being replaced by a tighter pop sensibility, reinventing themselves whilst many of their peers still mine the post-punk cliches. Their last record changed direction again into dense, ideas-first synth-pop, increasingly reflective of the desires of their drummer/singer/mouthpiece Zach Choy, rather than the sprawling collective that surrounded him. Here, with the cast list slimmed down to a seven-piece, they feel the most like a band that they have in some time.

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