Jagjaguwar are thrilled to announce the arrival of Canadian art punks Crack Cloud. The band are announcing their new album, Red Mile, out July 26th, and share its captivating lead single/video, ‘Blue Kite‘.
Although the band — now composed of Zach Choy, Aleem Khan, Bryce Cloghesy, Will Choy, Emma Acs, Eve Adams and Nathaniel Philips — has taken on many forms over the years, they now re-emerge as a lean, focused rock outfit, here joined by creative director Aidan Pontarini. Red Mile is their most mature and vital work yet.
Watch the video for ‘Blue Kite’ here:
‘Blue Kite’ is upbeat, snotty, sprawling and ultimately anthemic; in moments even recalling the dawn of punk in the late 70s. In some moments, it sounds like Richard Hell, but in its gorgeous staccato string section, it might remind one of John Cale’s ‘Paris 1919’. The track plays on the tropes of a rock-n-roll lifestyle, investigating why rock is a vital art form and providing a “skeleton key” for understanding the album proper.
About the album, Zach Choy has written a statement of purpose, which you can read in full here.
A departure from the hermetic, multi-year gestation of their astounding 2020 album Pain Olympics, and their 2022 follow-up work, Tough Baby, Red Mile is the product of swift, group collaboration. Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree, California, and Calgary, Alberta, the resulting album is informed by a bittersweet melange of new beginnings and familiar places. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed, but the group is unwilling as ever to deal in superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy, they deliver a record of exceptional depth and distinctly unprecious warmth. The record’s “lived-in” feel is less a comfy armchair and more a picture frame carefully mended with electrical tape.
Much of the angst which lends their earlier work a caustic urgency has fallen away, replaced by a soulful but relentless introspection. The eight songs contemplate physical and psychic roadblocks, the experience of aging out of chaos, adjusting to strange new hopes, and making peace with the group’s own mythology. The lyrics are cutting but merciful. The songs are self-aware, meta statements — nods to the tropes of punk rock, of being an addict, of a life lived in music.
Crack Cloud as artists are critical — and ultimately as forgiving — of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death. Crack Cloud’s Red Mile is a rock record – one made by people who know exactly how much that can mean.
Praise for Crack Cloud:
“The strange beauty of Pain Olympics is that it fills your heart even as it’s kicking you in the kidneys.” – Pitchfork
“One of the world’s buzziest collectives.” – NME
“Tremendously captivating.” – The Quietus
“An incendiary snapshot of a real musical force.” – Loud and Quiet
“Crack Cloud embodies the type of community spirit needed to navigate these turbulent times.” – i-D
“Raw, and real, and often emotional… a turbulent journey through the world of their community.” –
The Line of Best Fit
1. Crack Of Life
2. The Medium
3. Blue Kite
4. Lack Of Lack
5. Epitaph
6. I Am (I Was)
7. Ballad Of Billy
8. Lost On The Red Mile
Pre-order:
Pre-order Red Mile on CD, black vinyl, ‘freefall blue’ coloured vinyl and digitally here:
https://www.secretlystore.com/crack-cloud-red-mile
Pre-order the special Dinked edition of Red Mile on ‘burnout red’ coloured vinyl with a bonus CD featuring two previously unreleased tracks here:
https://dinkededition.co.uk/crack-cloud-red-mile
For more info on Crack Cloud, head to: https://www.crackcloud.ca/
