Review: Cloud Cult

Cloud Cult, a band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been making experimental-indie-pop-rock since 1995. Their release of the album "Light Chasers", which hit stores a couple months ago, has revealed some of their most interesting creations to date, exploring profound concepts and pushing new musical boundaries for the band.

The entire album revolves around two stories: an exploration to "find the actual ‘Light at the end of the tunnel,'" as lead vocalist Craig Minowa puts it in an interview with bloginity.com, and "the birth of the soul from the divine Light… the initial ‘separation' from the Light and the journey to the body."

The initial ideas proposed are enough to prompt a thorough listen and study of the words for deeper contemplation. These profound lyrics are quite a valuable investment for thought as listeners so often find a digression in the music scene to settle for catchy, hollow, shallow lyrics that simply do not provoke any substantial thought.

The album has some absolutely ingenious tracks that keep the listener coming back time and time again. At first, "Light Chasers" as a whole seems to have a lack of flow, but after listening to it multiple times, it begins to make more sense. Part of this initial lack of flow was created by the extreme diversity among the tracks. For example, "You Were Born" sounds like it could be on an Iron and Wine album. It has a strong indie folk sound to it, which comes across quite successfully. Right after this mellow, calming track, "The Exploding People" comes right in to deliver a very electronic sound with extremely auto-tuned vocals and digital percussion. Once again, Cloud Cult creates a very compelling song.

While the listener is still recovering from the drastic change from smooth folk to upbeat electronic, "Room Full of People in Your Head" presents a much darker side of Cloud Cult, and of the internal forces attempting to stop this search for the Light. Pounding pianos and tribal-like drumbeats create a sense of chaotic madness and a feeling of wearing thin.

It is not until the listener relates the back and forth, push and pull of this album with its lyrical concepts that it begins to come together as a whole. It begins to portray how mystifying, bewildering, and difficult a search for "truth" can be. Minowa put its best on bloginity.com, summarizing the end of this album: "Closure of the story. At the moment of giving up on the search for the Light they find a connection to the divine energy in the act of feeling love, and in so doing, they suddenly realize the Light/God/Mystery/Everything was around them all the while, they just couldn't see it."