Customer Reviews

Cloud Room

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Through the thick cloud of hype surrounding newcomers like Bloc Party and The Bravery, The Cloud Room has quietly entered the fray with a stunningly unique, thoughtful, timeless first album.

Like most people, I first heard of them from a few of their demos floating around the internet that piqued my interest. The best of those, "Hey Now Now", opens the album. This is one of those immense songs like "Losing My Religion" or "Bittersweet Symphony" that seem like they were always meant to be. The singer sounds like Lou Reed mixed with a little David Bowie. The band sounds like a combination of Pulp, The Shins and Joy Division. And the chorus is just about the catchiest anthemic thing I've heard. This song is breathtaking!

From there the album spreads out and deepens as it progresses through "Waterfall" (like Devendra Banhart with a disco bassline), the shouty "Blackout" (new wave, Strokes, The Fall), "Devoured In Peace" (Queen is Dead-era Smiths/Built to Spill), the spare, heartbreaking "Sunlight Song" (kind of like "Exit Music" or "Julia").

The second half of the album is weaker than the first, but has another couple of my favorites, "Oh My Love" (very Lennon, but not the Lennon song) and the album closer "We Sleep In The Ocean". It slowly shifts from a Lou Reed "Walk On The Wild Side" doo-doo-doo verse to a U2/Echo And The Bunnymen chorus and comes to a magnificent shimmering end.

There are moments where the lyrics get a little pretentious, and it would have been nice to have a full albums-worth of great songs, but these guys have come very very very close to a classic.

The main gripe about this album is it clocks in at a mere 33 minutes. Maybe it's a case of quantity versus quality. Aside from that, this is Brooklyn, NY band that shares common threads from Talking Heads to Radiohead. Most of the songs are one verse and one chorus long. Yet it's presentedwith a mix of sounds that half the time sounds like Secret Machines (also from Brooklyn which makes one wonder a bit) with a little bit of the Strokes for good measure. Also recommended for those like me who think Arcade Fire is overblown. This album is for you.

Really loved the "hey now now" track when I heard it on a movie soundtrack; it reminded me of Bowie without sounding like emulation. The whole CD is good. I recommend it. The seller was quick to turnaround and the CD was in excellent shape as promised.

This is the same Cloud Room album that was released years ago but with new packaging. Don't be fooled this is not a new album.

I saw this group open for Muse in New York and I never heard of them before but was knocked off my chair. They had a terrific combination of my favorite NY groups like The Strokes, Clap Your Hands and say Yeah and Interpol and there frontman sounded reminiscent of the man sitting right across from me in the balcony. Yep. David Bowie himself was there watching The Cloud Room! I picked up the CD and have not stopped humming it; to the chagrin of my girlfriend. I consider it revenge for the months she hummed "Time Is Running Out".

Something that the other reviewers haven't touched on is the best part of this cd. The emotional punch. This is the first cd to come close to the emotional high that had everyone falling in love with Arcade Fire. On the whole The Coud Room's cd isn't as good, but 5 or 6 songs are. I find the dancey ones to be limp, so many bands do that so much better. Hopefully they'll dump that side for their next cd, but finally another group to get excited about!

After the first few songs the cd does lose spirit and like another review said toward the end you really feel the filler factor. Had a chance to see them with Film School at the Mercury in NY but after I got the CD I passed.

This is what Bloc Party would sound like if they were good.

I learned about this band through a friend at work. Found them incredibly interesting at first, when I heard a demo of "Sunlight Song". The track came across as relatively dark, slightly reminding of the neo-psychodelic and shoegazing sounds of the early nineties. But the rest of the album turned out to be more along the lines of the neo-punk pop sound that became so popular during 2004 and 2005. It wore out after a while, the good thing being that it's just over 30 minutes long, so you almost don't notice it. Overall it's pretty good, largely due to the singer's voice, which is surrounded by a mysterious halo of sorts. Their music lies a step above The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, but a step below The Arcade Fire. I give the album 4 stars as a whole.

I got this album right after I went to their show. The CD is good, but they sound better live. The 1st song "hey now now" is one of the best new songs I have heard all year, but the rest of the album is kind of flat. Not a bad purchase, but you might want to listen to it somewhere first(if you can.