Future Clouds & Radar

Future Clouds & Radar | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 24, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Star Apple Kingdom
• ASIN: B000NQR7U2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,610 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Birds Of Prey

2. Let Me Get Your Coat

3. Hurricane Judy

4. Drugstore Bust

5. This Is Really A Book

6. You Will Be Loved

7. Quicksilver

8. Where'S My Drink / Holy Janet Comes On Waves

9. Wake Up And Live

10. Our Time

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Quicksilver 2

2. Get Your Boots On

3. Build Havana

4. Dr. No

5. Back Seat Silver Jet Sighter

6. Malice

7. The Great Escape

8. Letters To Juniors

9. Altitude

10. Cowboy Weather

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cotton Was King, deposed by Clouds, April 25, 2007

By 

Andrew Otwell "heyotwell" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Future Clouds & Radar (Audio CD)

What a joy it was to hear Robert Harrison's voice a few months ago on a podcast I listen to. I lived in Austin in the 1990's when his old band Cotton Mather was making some of the best guitar pop of the decade. Their album Kontiki was an amazing blend of lo-fi Beatles, ELO orchestration, and endlessly catchy tunes. Their next release "The Big Picture" was under-appreciated, but was a gem. (All of Cotton Mathers' CDs now go for forty or fifty dollars on the used market.) I was always especially a sucker for Cotton Mather's guitar player Whit Willams' playing, but it's clear with Harrison's new project how much of Cotton Mather's sound was his own.

It's pretty audacious to put out a double album as a first release, but Harrison's a mature songwriter, so he's obviously got a backlog of great tunes. There are a few songs here that are as good as anything Cotton Mather ever put out, "Hurricane Judy" is a dense, catchy, guitar-driven tune; it's impossible not to call it Beatlesesque. "Get Your Boots On" is almost heavy, well, at least as heavy as this kind of thing gets. "Build Havana" is lovely, but in a totally different way. "Dr No" is a great tune with some of Harrison's cleverest lyrics yet. It reminds me of the fussier stuff on CM's "Cotton is King", sort of reminiscent of Squeeze. If "Back Seat Silver Jet Sighter" doesn't take off in quite the direction I'd hoped it would based on the first few notes, it certainly goes somewhere wonderful, ending up with horns and tubular bells chiming away.

In short, if you ever liked Cotton Mather, you should like Future Clouds a lot, though it's not quite as direct as that band's music. It takes a few listens to get into the tunes. "Drugstore Bust" for example, starts out very strangely. Harrison's developed a real love for the sound of Pro Tools, which lets musicians cut and paste sounds and collage them. "Drugstore" first minutes are fragile, shuddering and odd, the song eventually settles into something you'll be singing for days. (Even if you can't make sense of the abstract lyrics.)

There's only one or two outright bad numbers. "The Great Escape" is an upbeat song that just sounds both bland and dishonest--like an attempt at a "hit song". Like with every double-album ever, there's some tedious filler here, too. I'll be skipping over experimental things like "Cowboy Weather" and "Letters to Junius", thanks. But there's a lot less of that than you'd think for a double album, and Disc 2 is actually really strong right to the end, where you get the straight pop of "Altitude" followed by the Irish-sounding(?) "Christmas Day 1923" and the rocking closer "Safety Zone".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cotton Mather Orchestrated And It Works!, May 7, 2007

By 

Philip N. Levy (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Future Clouds & Radar (Audio CD)

Other reviewers have mentioned the prior pop music contributions of Robert Harrison, leader of this group. At the helm of the Beatles-inspired pop rock group, Cotton Mather, he was responsible for two of the greatest releases of the '90s, namely "Kontiki" and "The Big Picture". For those not familiar with the vocal qualities of Robert Harrison, his sound is reminiscent of John Lennon which, of course, reinforces the Beatles connection.. Therefore, it is impressive how fresh sounding and non-derivative is the music that Robert Harrison produces.

Coming some six years since Cotton Mather's last effort, this release shows unmistakable links to the past in that Harrison "still has it" in terms of his ability to write great pop songs. That is really where he excels relative to some of the influences mentioned as contributing to this group's sound. Yes, there is a probable Flaming Lips' touch in the orchestral elements and psychedelic flourishes ala that group as well as 13th Floor Elevators. However, the songs here are, for the most part, outstanding, much better than those of the "influences".

Over the span of two CDs, there are only a few cuts that I would classify as filler. The highlights: "Let Me Get Your Coat", "Drugstore Bust", "You Will Be Loved", "Quicksilver", "Holy Janet Comes On Waves", "Our Time", "Build Havana", "Back Seat Silver Jet Sighter", "Malice Of Stars", "The Great Escape", "Altitude", "Armitage Shanks", "Safety Zone". I agree with another reviewer that this is the best popular music release thus far in 2007.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ambition pays off again for Robert Harrison..., May 3, 2007

By 

MarathonMan (Norfolk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Future Clouds & Radar (Audio CD)

Cotton Mather were a great band, simple as really, and with the endorsement of the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, they did manage to get a reasonable fanbase in the UK. I must admit having purchased Cotton is King at a record fair in the mid 90's I hoped that they would forever be my little secret but alas no.

Anyway, Cotton is King came and went and I thought that was my lot but then to my surprise I sourced Kontiki from the USA and my love affair with Cotton Mather was back on. Further releases including the stop gap Hotel Baltimore and their final effort The Big Picture confirmed the fact that Robert Harrison was a very ambitious and talented song writer. When I heard they had disbanded I was extremely upset, although I was proud of the fact I had managed to see them live on two occasions in London. Something I never thought would have been possible when I purchased Cotton is King all those years back.

So then silence for a few years and then I got wind of new developments, it looked as though Harrison was going to be working on solo stuff and a new record was possible. It then turned out that he had indeed formed a new band, the name Future Clouds and Radar. Word from the camp was that Harrison had got a huge number of songs written and being the typically ambitious songwriter that he is, had decided to release a double album as FC&R's debut.

The problem with double albums is often quality control and when I heard some of the tracks were overly experimental I must admit I was very concerned. Sure Cotton Mather did experiment but at the end of the day the classic songwriting shone through. Had Harrison really gone away from his Beatle-esque beliefs and gone totally experimental? In a word "no".

On first listen FCR's debut release is not as instant as a Cotton Mather album, however on repeated plays the songs really come into a world of their own and standards are kept at an unbelieveably high level during the entire 27 tracks. There are a couple of fillers "Letters to Junius" and "Cowboy Weather" are snippets of sounds but with each clocking in at just over the minute mark, they don't really do any harm to album as a whole. The rest is just brilliant.

Highlights for me are:
Disc1
Let Me Get Your Coat
Hurricane Judy
You Will be Loved
Holy Janet Comes on Waves (the most Cotton Mather sounding)
Our Time
Green Mountain Clover

Disc 2
Build Havanna
Dr No
Malice of Stars
Altitude
Armitage Shanks
Christmas Day 1923
Safety Zone

If I had to choose, I would say that Disc 2 is slightly stronger than Disc 1 and really ends on a high note with the classic pop of Armitage Shanks, the Irish sounding Christmas Day 1923 and very Cotton Mather-esque Safety Zone.

The double disc is ambitious and as with most albums of this variety you do wonder whether slimming it down to one disc would have made it even better. On this occasion I think not, the 2 discs flow extremely well with a very clever track order.

Classic songwriting doesn't get much better in my book and Harrison must be applauded for once again coming up trumps. If you liked Cotton Mather you will certainly like this, although it may take a couple of listens to really appreciate it.

The best release of 2007 so far.