![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/mark_clouds_waves.jpg\")
Many artists have chosen the retro path. They write new, original tunes but aim for a sound and style that evokes the past. And like any other creative set of decisions, this approach can yield results that are successful, or not. When mining the musical aesthetics of the past, it\u2019s far too easy to fall into clich\u00e9, or simply to get it wrong.<\/p>\n
But when it\u2019s right, it\u2019s a joy to behold. In the \u201890s, band like Kula Shaker and \u2013 let\u2019s admit it \u2013 Oasis cherry-picked some of the winning-est sounds of the past and dressed them up in then-current framework. And while Oasis was a little(!) derivative, the songs held up, and helped ot define a musical era.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to wonder if Mark and the Clouds could achieve similar success. As showcased on Waves<\/i>, their music is built around Marco Magnani\u2019s sharp songwriting, and the sonic trappings of the band\u2019s songs evoke everything from \u201890s Britpop (\u201cYou & Me in Space\u201d) to Mind Games<\/i>-era Lennon (\u201cBack in Time\u201d) to late-Sixties freakbeat (\u201cYou Wanna Put Me Down\u201d). And that\u2019s only the first three tracks.<\/p>\n
Magnani\u2019s vocals are perfectly suited to the kind of music he and his band make. With a musical approach that feels a bit like a UK answer to New Jersey\u2019s fabled Grip Weeds, Mark & the Clouds are a trio to be reckoned with. The classic\/throwback approach is empty if it\u2019s not applied to solid songwriting, but this group has that covered. Not a note is wasted; the songs are exemplars of economical writing and arrangement.<\/p>\n
Even when the arrangements swing for the fences \u2013 check \u201cWinter Song\u201d \u2013 there\u2019s still muscle at the core of the melody. And while the group itself is a three-piece, they enlist auxiliary players when the songs call for a bit more. A handy example is the brass layered onto the swoonworthy \u201cAll These Plans.\u201d The song would be very good even without it, but those splashes of horns take the tune somewhere else \u2026 somewhere you\u2019re advised to go.<\/p>\n
The waltzing \u201cFree Me Now\u201d is built around acoustic guitar, but it features some thunderous reverb and pedal steel guitar that \u2013 once again \u2013 take a good song and make it something really special. And the band shows its ability to lay down a riff rocker with songs like \u201cNo One Makes a Sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
The album is staggering in its consistency; thanks to songs like \u201cThe Same Old Dream\u201d \u2013 eight tracks in and possibly the best song on the set \u2013 Waves<\/i> sounds more like a greatest-hits LP than a statement of here\u2019s where-we-are-today record.<\/p>\n
The record\u2019s title track sounds like Simon and Garfunkel crossed with very early Badfinger. The shimmering Merseybeat flavor of \u201cPromised Land\u201d feels as authentic as anything else on the album; John O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s pedal steel, the string arrangement and the brass instrumental break are all deft dollops of icing on the tasty cake. The delightfully noisy \u201cMiles and Miles Away\u201d is a fully-charged rocker. And the album concludes in fine fashion with an atmospheric, spaghetti-western feel on \u201cSomebody Else.\u201d<\/p>\n
I must hold out the possibility that something else might see release in the last five months of 2021 that could change my opinion, but at this moment, there\u2019s no better album from this year than Mark & the Clouds\u2019 Waves<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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