Clearlake: C/D?

I have a list on my desk of albums I need to get. bah. I never get any.

then my credit card bill turns up :(

yeah i know, i'm clueless..

not at all impressed by this stooges channeled thru aerosmith sound

Would it be remarkably unfashionable of me to bring these guys up at this point? I like them.

I used to like them, too. Got bored of them quickly I guess. I guess it was the first album I had. I didn't know they were still recording.

Bought and loved first album, saw them on tour at the time, didn't listen to anything after, haven't heard them for years. Lyrics on first album waaaaaaaaaaay too close to home for anything other than wallowing listening.

NV's first sentence = ditto me except for thinking their second album was pretty great at the time and certainly slept on

This thread makes me kind of want to listen to the second, I might track it down.

second is ok.. diminishing returns as you progress through their catalogue though

I'd hang with that tbh (maybe bumping the second album up a bit) but there's plenty of good stuff even on the third album ("No Kind Of Life", "You Can't Have Me", "Widescreen" and maybe a couple more). The penultimate tracks on the last two albums are pretty much the strongest songs on those respective albums; if anything, this band needed to blow up a little more. "Treat Yourself With Kindness" is *awesome*. Second-best track on that album is the one where they go almost as far with the sonics ("Come Into The Darkness").

First album is thoroughly excellent imo. Terrifyingly consistent with the classic tunes, its willingness to experiment doesn't once detract from the strength of the songs.

Actually wtf am I talking about, "Almost The Same" is a fantastic little opener

Never heard the first album, but I love "Cedars," an album so thoroughly and convincingly pessimistic that its cheery opening track sounds like an ironic pisstake, and the redemptive closing one-two punch at the end actually feels earned.

Not too into the third record barring the great opener. These guys ever coming back?

Listen to the first album! It's much sunnier, cheerier and more whimsical than Cedars, and has some cracking tunes.

to answer my own question, they are releasing some singles to fund a new album:

http://www.myspace.com/clearlakenoise

and then I realized "September" meant "September 2008." :(

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Brand new single "The Credit Or The Blame" out now!
Current mood: busy
Category: Music
Clearlake's new single "The Credit Or The Blame" was released on Friday February 20 - it can be previewed on the Myspace page now and bought exclusively from the website - http://www.clearlake.uk.com

As with the previous two singles, the proceeds are being used exclusively to fund the recording of new album "Dark Blue" - the album is now nearly complete and will be released later in 2009...

Hope you enjoy the new song!

Doesn't sound like too much cause for concern tbh

Currently listening:
Sing to God parts 1 & 2
By Cardiacs
Release date: 1996-06-10

Actually, sounds quite promising imo

"Amber" has officially had the longest purchase-to-love gestation period of any album I own. The ultimate slow-burner. All three Clearlake records are very, very good. Bring on number 4 (in a month or two)!

I suppose the new stuff is okay but I'd much rather make my own up, any day.

Jason Pegg has a digital-only solo album out. Very nice stuff, like a less rocking Clearlake but still solid lyrics and memorable tunes.

Pegg's new solo album is really good, and 'Might As Well' besides being the archetypical Pegg songtitle is kinda Cardiacsy :)

Thanks for the heads up, grabbing this now!

Any idea what became of Clearlake? Did they just disintegrate?

musical differences, I presume

Pegg's the one worth following, obv

decided that Lido is kind of the ultimate British indie record

Heh, just thinking about these lads lately. As much as I dig "Lido", it's the power and energy of "Cedars" that does it for me.

it's Lido season (for the next five months)

Cedars is a longtime personal fave, brilliantly sequenced

also fantastic

upthread predictions that they'd be referenced as a classic band in retrospect seem unfortunately wide of the mark. we'll remember you, clearlake

Thanks for bumping this thread, spun "Lido" and "Cedars" for the first time in yonks. Still hold up, love the lyrics. I want to live in a dream!

their grasp of album sequencing on those first two records is wondrous

Lido meant a lot to me when it came out, I had just come out of a phase of doing a lot of drugs and had dropped out of uni and didn't know what was next, I had this mix of being kind of burnt out and a failure but also waking up to the world. It really captured that feeling so well that it felt like it had been written specifically for me.

Another Cedars fan here ... “wonder if the snow” and “trees in the city” are favorites

I think pitchfork is how I found them

This band are still painfully underrated.

I need to re-listen to all of their albums ASAP... I still find it incredible that this band were swept under the carpet the way they were.

part of my dumb animus toward the arcade fire is people losing their shit over 'funeral' when 'cedars', released not that long before it, had been relatively unheralded. i know it's not a competition but pitchfork nation can sure be easily blinkered

but...in a rare stroke of inspiration, pitchfork gave cedars 9.4 iirc

oh, 9.1

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1495-cedars/

that's still a LOT for a british indie band

Pianos Become the Teeth sound like an emo band again and I'm not sure how to feel about that yet

https://open.spotify.com/track/5kEHz2d1bafXdAem3PfIya

woops wrong thread lol

that's a great review for a killer album but they never became one of pitchfork's hype bands, despite ruling way harder than some i could name

i really loved this band at the time but for the life of me, i can't remember one thing about them other than they were mellow. i own two or three CDs.

just found and added 'amber' to the archive.
I feel I have missed out on something rather special.

and it's only their third best album!

so I see.
however, I was not on the labels mailing list re earlier stuff so this will have to suffice.

it's pretty good for something that will have to suffice