Canadian art punk collective
Crack Cloud
are at their most visceral on their fourth album
Red Mile
. The band grew from being a tool to process addiction issues and recovery for its founding members into a more versatile creative outlet, with albums changing gears between styles and genres from song to song.
is a hyper-charged record full of nods to the teenage heroes of punk rock and other disparate sources of inspiration. The album consists of just eight songs, but
loads each of them with layers of meaning, reference, and influence. "Blue Kite" is a confluence of synth pop keys,
Cure
-ish basslines, emotionally burning string arrangements à la early-2000's indie rock like
Arcade Fire
or
the Decemberists
, and vocals modeled directly after
the Clash
. It makes for an interesting combination of somewhat contradictory sounds and methodologies, going from a snotty, unschooled vocal to a moody orchestral string breakdown, then building back up into a cinematic flare-up that would work on an
Explosions in the Sky
track. "The Medium" is also a dead ringer for
London Calling
-era
Clash
, with a straightforward melodic presence that makes it one of the album's best songs. "Epitaph" blends some of that punky vigor in with a darkly ethereal and synth-heavy instrumental. The album crests on final track "Lost on the Red Mile," a lingering and careful tune that loops and builds before jamming out on a mellow groove for its last quarter, providing a comedown for a wildly spirited album.
is dense and knowingly constructed, with the same white-glove sensibilities of a band like
Broken Social Scene
applied to messy, street-level punk anthems. It's at times caught between escaping into nostalgic juvenilia and dialing in perfectly manicured indie rock productions, but ultimately,
joyfully exploring that incongruity is the entire point. ~ Fred Thomas