The Cloud Room

The Cloud Room

(Gigantic Music)

Record Review by Michele Fair

The Cloud Room’s self-titled debut is a guilty pleasure, an album to be devoured in private while dancing in your pajamas at night or driving to work in the morning. The band has an infectious sound that could almost be dubbed “Interpol lite.” The lead vocalist, known only as “J,” has a steady and consistent voice that shows strength, yet lacks any inkling of overemoting. It’s the music on The Cloud Room that gets you moving. Keys and guitars combine with hypnotic, techno-style 80s drum pad percussion to ensure that things won’t get boring. Well, at least not for most tracks.

While the album is a little short on genius—lyrical or otherwise—one can’t help but sing along to the first track and wildly popular single “Hey Now Now,” screaming about how you found the bus and paid the bus fare. It’s an anthem for New Yorkers, and while most of us have never had that honor, we feel like we’re walking down the streets alongside the band. There are a few moments where ingenuity takes hold, as on “Blackout,” when our main character J proclaims: “we were making wishes / on some missiles / we mistook for shooting stars.” For a band who seemingly came out of nowhere (The Strokes, anyone?) and suddenly earned themselves a video on MTV, articles in SPIN, and a huge following of screaming girls primarily in their early 20s, The Cloud Room might initially strike the die-hard indie fan as nothing more than mindless drivel. On the other hand, the album was produced by Chris Zane, who did work on more magnificent fare like Les Savy Fav. The production work is smooth, the songs are catchy, and, dammit, regardless of the innate desire to snub The Cloud Room, a good listen will have you shutting the blinds, turning up the volume, and putting on your best pair of PJs.