I Am Kloot Sky at Night (EMI)
5/5
By: Richard Brant
For the past ten years, I Am Kloot have been lurking in the lonesome dark, collecting enough critical acclaim to wall paper each one of the three piece’s houses. Yet they still haven’t managed to extend this adulation to a wider audience in the same way that fellow “melancholics” Doves or Elbow have. Their fifth studio album Sky at Night may still bridge this gap.
With a voice sitting somewhere amongst Tony Hicks, Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan, John Bramwell’s nasally tones pierce through the calming start to the beautifully constructed ‘Northern Skies.’ It’s an intriguing, well travelled kind of vocal that could not be more suited to I Am Kloot’s mellow, reminiscent tone set by this album opener.
Having had a “little” success of their own since producing Kloot’s debut album Natural History, Elbows’ Guy Garvey and Craig Potter return taking to the desk on this album with heightened skills and immediate impact as a richer sound is achieved with orchestral qualities sweeping throughout.
‘To The Brink’ has a morose quality that only a song about drinking solitude and outer façade could bring. It’s a slow minor melody flanked by cycling guitar plucks, interrupted by string crescendos displaying turpentine imagery conjured by lines like “This stuff strips the life from your bones”
A series of tracks then proceed to takes us deeper in to Bramwell’s mind starting with the trundling ‘Fingerprints’ which highlights a feeling of being unable to walk away and stuck in routine as the constant country blues like kick drum and bass naturally parallels. The sluggish gospel choir accompanied ‘Lately’ follows with a soul searching, mind racking, insular theme exploring inescapable anxieties one’s mind throws at them. ‘I Still Do’ has dreamy qualities as Bramwell explores reoccurring imaginative visions, with a dichotomised second verse although steeped in the maintained trance that the guitar/harp combination provides, states “When I was a child, I had that look in my eye, had a will to despise, make destruction my life, I still do.” Finally, eerily lonely, ‘The Moon Is a Blind Eye’ is an exploration in to the purpose of being, coming to a fleeting grasping conclusion that “…to be loved is to be divine” as echoing drums crash in momentarily throughout.
‘Proof’ makes a reappearance on Sky At Night, previously released as a download only single from second LP I Am Kloot. It’s certainly had a few tweaks with a wider range of sound particularly towards the end where a twinkling piano dances over the top of the “outro.” After a track oozing isolation where Bramwell has established “to be loved is to be divine” it seems fitting for this alcohol tinged, yet heart warming song about companionship to follow “…who am I without you”
In perfect I Am Kloot style ‘It’s Just the Night’ u-turns to reminds us of our solitude again, as the glum piano chords coincide with similar guitar cycles listlessly flowing along, with Bramwell’s languid voice illustrating the lonesome of the night “…call out nobody’s name, and fall out with yourself again”
‘Radiation’ is unquestionably another highlight, the universe here takes centre stage surrounded by glockenspiel, piano, harp and saxophone magic, while a confident strut is administered after a building beginning. All this as Bramwell uncharacteristically, yet optimistically chants “Everything we ever thought we’d ever want, me and you, well it just came through, it just came true.” It’s a truly warming track. But what? Optimistic? I Am Kloot? No don’t worry… ‘Same Shoes’ rounds the album to a slow finish “out of booze,” surrounded by “…the same clowns, the same tunes” as solos from a sad solitary saxophone and similarly trumpet take you to a slow meandering stop.
Had Sky at Night not just been recognised as a potential winner for this year’s Mercury Prize, I feel it could well have just remained yet another Kloot magnet for praise, as it takes a number of listens to truly appreciate the intricacies within, but they could well now find a deservedly bigger audience. The album, aided by superb arrangement and production, is structured in such a way that lyrics and music complement each other startlingly well, all ten tracks inviting you on a peak-and-trough journey through a complicated mind.
Artists in this article: I Am Kloot
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