Cloud Cult – The Meaning of 8
Cloud Cult’s Album Exceeds All Expectations (link)
I mentioned Andrew Bird and his “green friendly” tour last week regarding Earth Day, but if there’s one band that represents the epitome of “green friendly”, it’s Cloud Cult. Chris Minowa and his band mention in the liner notes of their new album, The Meaning of 8, that 10 trees are planted by them for every 1,000 albums manufactured. Add to that the fact that they use 100% post-consumer recycled paper, nontoxic soy-ink and shrink wrap, and all energy consumed in the manufacturing and shipping of the albums, as well as their touring process is greened in some manner.
This Earth friendly attitude is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unique manner in which Cloud Cult not only live their lives, but in the way they create music as well. Cloud Cult started as a solo project of Chris Minowa, who would often hand out environmental fact sheets before and after his shows to no response since he mainly played in bars. It was the unexpected death of his two year old son that not only threw Minowa into an emotional downward spiral and hermit hood in his Northern Minnesota barn, but led to over 100 songs as Minowa simply wrote songs obsessively.
Eventually Minowa’s friends became his backing band and Cloud Cult was the result. Knowing this back story has been one of the main reasons I’ve connected with Minowa’s songs so much. Throughout Aurora Borealis and Advice from the Happy Hippo, Minowa’s strange angst-filled way of singing, coupled with songs so full of instrumentation you often lose your train of thought just listening to them, have led to a sound that’s distinctly Cloud Cult’s.
The actual meaning of the number 8 in context of Cloud Cult’s new album could be seen most literally as the age Minowa’s son Kaidin would have been, or the metaphorical meaning of the number 8 as the connection between life and death. Life themes are nothing new for Cloud Cult as Aurora Borealis focused on light, Happy Hippo on the soul and the skin we live in, and this newest album focuses on chemicals. “Chemicals Collide” appears soon on The Meaning of 8 as their first single and finds clear guitar picking surrounded by cellos, upbeat percussion, and Minowa singing “Oh God it’s beautiful, insatiable, the way our chemicals collide”. It’s the first sign of the chemicals of life theme and this theme only continues throughout the album.
One difference with their newest album fans will notice most is the lack of those strange, yet fun experimental songs found on past albums. Songs like “Toys in the Attic” from They Live on the Sun, which featured everyone singing over toy instruments and nothing else, are all but gone on the new album. This is not a bad thing, but the newfound maturity of Cloud Cult will lead to more casual fans due to the more straight-forward nature of their albums.
More straight-forward may be a stretch, as The Meaning of 8 is still a concept album like all their past albums, and the instrumentation still trumps most bands out there. “Take Your Medicine” may be the best song of the year as a driving drum beat is met by an oddly appropriate cello and detuned guitar only to disappear completely behind a toy box and bass filled verse. The song finds Minowa singing “Look at all of their skeletons running from their closets/Get them in the light!” as he weaves a tale of the secrets we all keep hidden from each other.
“Your 8th Birthday” is Minowa singing to his son asking questions through lines like “Who can say goodbye with a yoda-lay-hee-hoo?/You did, when you promised that the dead are now magicians”. The entire song is just five lines followed by Minowa singing Kaiden’s name, but it still proves to be one of the most powerful songs on the album.
“Dance for the Dead” finds the band singing “Can you hear them come?” repeatedly over soaring strings and a marching beat while the topic of God is poked at with fun, with songs like “A Good God” describing a boy thinking God was He-man, and Minowa thinking that God could be in everything around us for all we know from an 80 year old dog, to a girl kissing a frog. Religion has always made its way into Cloud Cult’s music, but it’s usually just Minowa’s examination of religion as a culture rather than his religious views and the result is usually that of subtle satire of the culture.
This is seen best in the song “Alien Christ”, which tells the tales of a small village affected by a possible UFO sighting so much they describe it as the possible second coming of Christ. Minowa’s story pokes fun at the commercialization of religion with lines like “And the only eye-witness/Is a Russian widow and she says/It’s clear that he has come again/Sell your SUV’s for Jesus”. I wish I could quote the entire song, as it’s one of my favorite songs lyrically of the year, but Minowa’s tale of a UFO sighting being turned into a religious experience, then a media frenzy with lines like “A Pulitzer Prize for the first of you who talks to the Alien Christ”, and ultimately a loss in faith as nothing happens, is brilliant and the fact that the song surrounding these lyrics is great as well says a lot for how far Cloud Cult have come.
Ultimately, The Meaning of 8 exceeded all my expectations of what the new Cloud Cult album would bring. Sure, it is more straight-forward like I stated before, but for most of you who would have probably turned off their older albums before it was half done, this is for the best. Cloud Cult have grown up and there’s no denying this after hearing their new album, but Minowa’s inner-child, which has dominated past albums, still peeks it’s head into many songs on the new album. Luckily, this combination of new and old has resulted in one of Cloud Cult’s finest albums to date.
