A question has been intriguing me rather: what are the factors for choosing AOTM? Is it the album I have listened to the most all month (which would be Confident Music for Confident People by Confidence Man)? Or is it the best album I have heard all month (Probably Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, the more modern recording)? In the end, I have chosen Bliss Release by Cloud Control as it is the most suitable to describe my July. I wanted to play this at a dinner during the hottest day of the year but was constrained to listening to Andrew (Andrwho?) Bird. This would have been my choice and is one of my favourite summer albums. It was introduced to me by my father, whose taste in music is a strong redeeming quality for other nefarious aspects of his character with which one has to put up. I am sure he feels the same about me.
There’s an appealing open-heartedness about the debut from Australian psychedelic poppers Cloud Control, a sense of wide-eyed, slightly fried wonder. You might even pin down their entire worldview to a single line in the song Ghost Story: “I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.” Singer Alister Wright sounds so amazed by everything that one suspects he could conjure awe out of a parking permit renewal reminder. Guardian
There’s Nothing In the Water is very much in keeping with the Cloud Control theme, it is a cool, well produced slick piece of Australian psychedelic pop.
Gold Canary is the standout track on the album. The riffs, drum line and catchy lyrics add up for a real toe-tapping winner of a track. In a way it is about freedom and being released from one’s cage.
Just For Now is another perfect summer tune, which allows us to cruise along a mountain highway, or sip tea through a sunny Saturday morning without a care in the world.
This Is What I Said recalls Paul Simon’s Graceland with its African-inflected guitar line and Wright’s conversational but oddly stilted lyric: “She said, ‘Can you feel the tangible chill in the air?'” One half expects the next line to reveal the speaker is nine years old and the child of his first marriage. Guardian
This album has, in various comment sections of the sources I consult for making these posts, been described as ‘criminally underrated’. I am minded to agree. This is close to a perfect album and is certainly a very high quality summer album with ‘good vibes’ as the youth of today would say.