Cloakroom: Dissolution Wave

Indiana natives Cloakroom are primed to release their third album entitled Dissolution Wave on January 28th via Relapse Records.

Dissolution Wave is a concept album with a pretty wild narrative - ‘a space western in which an act of theoretical physics-the dissolution wave-wipes out all of humanity’s existing art and abstract thought. In order to keep the world spinning on its axis, songsmiths must fill the ether with their compositions’. I’m not familiar with this band but I’m a sucker for a concept album, so I was intrigued to give this album a play through.

Cloakroom play a style of alt-rock that is difficult to pigeonhole. It’s a merging of a few familiar sounds, but it’s relatively unique in its presentation -part Shoegaze, part space rock, part fuzzed out stoner. The album is a good listen on headphones as the reverb drenched tones and slappy echoes create a spacy ambience which ties together nicely with the concept of the release. Speaking of the concept, I must admit that I didn’t pick up on much of the storyline myself. The vocals are delivered in a laid-back dreamy fashion which works well for the songs individually, but the lyrics don’t seem to cut through and tell me the story. Perhaps I need to get a physical copy where I’d be able to read through the lyric sheet and study the album art as the piece unfolds.

From a song writing perspective the album sounds to my ears like a cohesive collection of 8 stand-alone tracks too-whilst this album has a concept it isn’t the sort of concept album where the tracks merge together. You could put these songs on a shuffled playlist, and they would stand on their own.

All in all, I find this album to be an enjoyable listen, albeit it not my usual go to style. My favourite tracks on the release are "Fear of Being Fixed", the dreamy wash of the title track "Dissolution Wave", and the album closer "Dissembler".

Fans of Shoegaze should give this album a listen. If you’re not usually a fan of Concept albums don’t be afraid of this album either, as there’s a real ‘song first’ oriented approach which should serve the album well.

Track Listing

1. Lost Meaning
2. Dissolution Wave
3. A Force at Play
4. Dottie-back Thrush
5. Fear of Being Fixed
6. Lambspring
7. Doubts
8. Dissembler

Added: January 27th 2022
Reviewer: Chris Reid
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 380
Language: english

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