Customer Reviews

Future Clouds & Radar

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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".

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.

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.

Hands down, as other previous reviewers have stated, this is without doubt some of the most inventive pop writing anyone will encounter this year. Not being familiar with Robert Harrison's previous work with Cotton Mather I decided to listen to what buzz I had been reading surrounding this piece of work. Harrison has simply absorbed and assimilated Beatlesque melodies as well as a plateau of 70's pop greats and reinvented those influences, coming up with an album that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any masterpiece of the past.
An amazing work that beacons you back time and time again!

NPR's introduction to a recent in-studio performance from FC&R's Robert Harrison questioned whether this "double-disc debut is pure genius with blind ambition, or the product of an excess of ideas." It's a reasonable question for someone who has listened to the record 10 times or so. Any fewer rotations and the listener will firmly be in the excess of ideas camp. Any more, and they're probably leaning in the genius direction.

On the surface, FC & R is a very different vehicle to Harrison's former band Cotton Mather. Certainly, no one will tag this album as Revolver-era Beatles. Lovers of Cotton Mather's masterpiece Kontiki will sigh at that claim, but should not despair. The album contains a bunch of quality, jangling rockers: Let Me Get Your Coat, Hurricane Judy, Drugstore Bust, Holy Janet Comes on Waves (complete with a hook from Cotton Mather's Payday), Our Time, Dr No, & Great Escape to name just some, and only one song sounds anything like ELO! (ref: Amazon product description).

There is also a bunch of mid-tempo numbers, as radio friendly as any of Harrison's tunes since Cotton is King (Back Seat Silver Jet Fighter, You will be Loved, and the best one, Build Havana).

One of the more challenging aspects of the record for the listener, certainly for a longtime Cotton Mather fan, is the frequent use of horns. While a successful and almost track-defining addition to the first cut, Birds of Prey, elsewhere they are intrusive and their use clumsy and distracting (Hurricane Judy, Back Seat Silver Jet Fighter). And then there is the general `tween song weirdness that peppers the disc - sound bites, aborted tunes and feedback. Most of this actually adds to the texture of the record, but at times is a failure (Quicksilver 2, which is a reprise of an earlier track and opens disc 2, is pointless and features amateurish fade-in and fade-out). But the positives really massively outweigh these minor qualms.

FC & R is a big recording with many styles. At times it is adventurous and challenging. Cotton Mather it is not, but I no longer care. It is the best record I have heard in at least a year. Imagine the hoo-ha if Wilco had made this!

Robert Harrison's Future Clouds & Radar 2-disc release is the "new"
equivalent to Game Theory's "Lolita Nation". That is a great thing!
Experimental, broad, hook-laden, smart arrangements, and just a super ride through Robert's musical journey.

As a "boomer" I grew up with the Beatles. One thing about the Beatles
is that every album was an adventure. Didn't much sound like the last
album but It was interesting and the more you listened the more you liked it. This album is one of those adventures. Certainly was curious at first
listen. Beatles/Squeeze/Joe Jackson/Robyn Hitchcock and many others came
to mind. Runs the gamut to melancholy to experimental. Great production
value. A really super piece of work. You may not like all of it but with
so much sound-alike junk out there, a independent spirit of creativity to relish.

Robert Harrison, the most criminally overlooked songwriter in the power pop arena, has returned. Cotton Mather fans will recognize his Lennon-esque voice, of course, but he has espanded on his previous band's Beatle-isms (about which I have never had complaints--Kontiki is one of the greatest power pop albums EVER) to include spacier, more psychedelic elements. Some songs, like "Hurricane Judy," are cut from the same CM cloth but the real highlights are the ethereal "Malice of Stars," the ridiculously catchy "Build Havana" and "Drugstore Bust," the ELO-ish "Safety Zone," and the folky "Green Mountain Clover." I'm not convinced that this wouldn't have made an even better album pared down to one really long disc (I can do without some of the Robert Pollard-style song fragments and the 7-minute Bob Marley cover, but that's just me), but my relief on having more Robert Harrison music--finally!--to enjoy forces me to give this five stars. Dig it!

First, a couple of corrections: Amazon's track listing is rather error-ridden. The songs "Where's My Drink?" (with question mark and no capital "S") and "Holy Janet Comes on Waves" are not a single track; track 6 on disc 2 is called "Malice of Stars"; and track 8 is "Letters to Junius" (not "Juniors"). Also: the customer who said this is "basically a Robert Harrison solo album" is wrong: there are tons of other musicians here, even though Harrison's the songwriter and main vocalist.

Anyway: this is a sprawling (intentionally), brilliant collection of songs that show the vitality of the sixties-style "can we use the kitchen sink for percussion?" approach to music. But even though Harrison's Beatle-esque melodic sense is strong (and his voice is almost a perfect cross between Lennon's and McCartney's), he does not confine his interests to a single decade. Witness the opening track, with a strong reggae feel...even if warped through psychedelia and prog-rock (yep, much of the song is in 7/4 time!), or the frequently noted Pollardian gene prevalent in many tracks, or Harrison's dubwise sonic deconstructions (achieved in 21st-century digital, rather than via tape manipulation, I believe).

Those who complain about the album's bewildering stylistic diversity miss the point...or rather, they mistake it in not noting that that is the point! Harrison (on FC&R's website) comments that listeners should think of it as 27-course meal, or as a travelogue: if you don't like something, just go to something else. At the same time, he's structured the sequence so that songs shine more brightly in their settings than removed, in isolation. A good example is the sequence from "Dr. No" through "Back Seat Silver Jet Sighter" through "Malice of Stars": three distinct moods, with segues and voices-off, form a sort of mini-version of the album as a whole.

Definitely one of the best of 2007 - and there's been a lot of excellent music this year.

This is basically a Robert Harrison solo album. Robert was the genius behind the highly underrated band Cotton Mather. The sound is looser & more alternative leaning than Cotton, but Robert covers just about every genre of music here & he does it all beautifully. Easily one of the best releases of the year!