Album Review: Clearlake - "Amber" (7.8/10)

By Old Man

I have a soft spot in my heart for power pop. Jangly guitars, four-part harmonies, ironic love stories, over-the-top chorus melodies, simple drum patterns - you get the idea. On the musical complexity spectrum for power-pop, I would put a band like early Pedro the Lion (I love it, don't get me wrong, but the drumbeat is pretty much the same the whole album) on the simple end and on the other end would probably be the New Pornographers , with their crazy time signatures, key changes, and drastic style morphs even within the same songs.

On that spectrum, I would put Clearlake's Amber smack dab in the middle. They can do both well - simple, beautiful pop songs and complex, mulit-harmonied orchestral extravaganzas.
The opening track, "No Kind of Life," is a dark rocker with a beatiful offset background harmony in the chorus - ala The Posies . The second track, "It's Getting Light Outide, " which is vying for my favorite of the album, showcases Jason Peggs vocals alone - without the typical doubling and tripling with harmonies that give it an airier quality for the rest of the songs. He sounds remarkably like Morrissey - there is definately a nod to the Smiths going on. "Finally Free, " reaches back to early 60's garage rock similar to the Turtles or the Kinks . While it is a catchy song it seems out of place with the rest of the album - like the result of late night producer's suggestion in the studio: "This album is pretty dark - let's get something light and poppy in there." "Faraway," which is my other favorite track on the album, manages to get into some sixties psychadelia without sounding overtly "retro." Very Zombies . Beautiful verbed out harmonies over a bassdrum that never leaves the eighth-notes the entire song, it is creative, orchestral, but still something you can turn up while you're going 65 down the freeway.
While this album has great songs - it lacks the cohesion of a well thought through album - and will listen best as part of an Ipod shuffle.
Amber being their third album, I am suprised I hadn't heard more from Clearlake. The release is, in my opinion, far superior to much of the power pop being shoved out there (I won't mention names). They have a great UK label (Domino Records, which at one time boasted the Arctic Monkeys , Franz Ferdinand , and The Notwist ) that has a stateside imprint as well. Though they haven't experienced the same success in the US as in Great Britain (where they recently opened for Death Cab for Cutie in a sold out show), I predict if they can put forth a strong effort on their next album we could be hearing a lot more from them.