Review Summary: A meditative psychic drawl in perpetual motion.
Crack Cloud are quite the enigmatic group. Operating much like the rotating door of a musical chairs Recovery Club, and boasting upward of ten(?) members at a time, it’s no surprise that “expansive” seems to be the most commonly used adjective when describing Crack Cloud’s mixed media approach to experimental art punk. Having so many cooks in the kitchen is typically a recipe for disaster, but the band somehow manages to delegate tasks and maintain harmonic balance like some sort of communist punk pseudo-corporation. There are no overlapping hands or spilled dishes in this kitchen, each member has their own station, works according to their ability and need, and—for a band that once touted “creativity with no rules"—
Red Mile somehow emerges as their most focused and fully realized vision to date.
Crack Cloud pulls a lot of inspiration from the era of 70s and 80s art punk, post punk, and new wave, but where the group really excels is with their plodding and methodic use of negative space. Eight songs in forty-five minutes might sound like a test of patience, especially for a record that is undeniably punk rock at it’s core, but
Red Mile is an exercise in minimalist song structures with progressive intent—gracefully shifting to make space for new layers of ideas and orchestral instruments without any trace of busyness or clutter. Third track "Blue Kite” begins with a charming new wave rhythm laden with synths and cowbell as singer Zach Choy recounts personal experiences of addiction and SRO’s
(“Striking balance over years of push and pull / Absolved of bedbugs and that dirty fentanyl”) with a rotten snarl to draw up an abstract thesis on the breaking-of-self that happens under pressure of social conformity. The song patiently dances into a crescendo of synthesizers, guitars and violins before falling back to a primitive simplicity. It’s a meditative psychic drawl in perpetual motion, both nihilistically poetic and painfully self aware.
Most of the album occupies this space of self deprecative character studies and bleak statements on culture obscured in referential poetry and delivered with cinematic enthusiasm. It’s inventive and experimental, but the soft punch of the rhythm section and familiar punk rock tropes never fail to keep the narrative grounded. It’s really hard to pick a favourite track here, as they all contribute so much, but some other personal highlights include the snark commentary on punk profiteers during second track “The Medium”
(“Who would’ve thought that the socially reclusive could be exploited for industry usage?”), fourth track “Lack of Lack”, which reminds me of some of the more hushed and abstract cuts off of Fugazi’s
End Hits, and the drunken piano-saxophone rock opera of seventh track “Ballad of Billy”.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t really followed Crack Cloud’s career up until this point, so I can’t speak in depth about the evolution between this album and their last two. I will say, however, that this one immediately felt more approachable and consistent. I saw an early iteration of the band live in some tiny sweat box venue back in 2016 and I remember being blown away by their performance, but with
Red Mile, I really believe that Crack Cloud have crafted a timeless record that any fan of rock music—be it The Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, or Pink Floyd—can find a piece of themselves in. Take a sip of something cool and sweet, and dive on in.
