Clearlake CD Review
Clearlake
Amber
(Domino)
Brighton, U.K.’s Clearlake waste time being photographed. Maybe not time, but publicity dollars.
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has simultaneously put a pinch on the photograph industry and kept some bills in bands’ pockets. Certainly no one’s appearance sums up their band so well, and Clearlake, while merely cousins in sound, are likewise imageproof. They could dress like students, bikers, or models, and it would clue you none to their sound. Part of that, again, is due to lack of an image. White rock, yes. British . . . yeah, if you want to be specific, though that’s as near as you’ll get. “Good Clean Fun” burns frayed JAMC edges, “It’s Getting Light Outside” is Morrissey gone Tom Jones. But what’s most impressive about Amber is the unveiling of Clearlake as a force.
Cedars, from 2003, never seemed to go anywhere, but Amber, even if it stalls in the Oasis half of Cooper Temple, sounds vivacious. Oasis’ blindness pervades “Here To Learn,” yet the downtempo “Dreamt That You Died” only needs a 6/8 beat to promo itself as a distant, ’50s ballad.
— Kevin Keegan
Click here for a demo version of “Far Away.”
