{"product_id":"crack-cloud-red-mile-vinyl-1","title":"Crack Cloud - Red Mile (Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetails: \u003c\/strong\u003eCrack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both\r\nprofound and grand, vaporous and elusive.\r\nThe first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a\r\nproxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and\r\naccompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known\r\nas Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver,\r\nworking out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety,\r\nself-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos\r\nfor Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their\r\nastounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision became\r\nexpansive, cinematic.\r\nNow, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to\r\nCalgary. But Calgary\/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux.\r\nAfter a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even\r\nmean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a\r\nrebirth.\r\nRed Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street\r\nbound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine\r\nwith chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find\r\na Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to\r\nwatch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars - alternately lilting,\r\nscuzzy and soaring - ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024,\r\nthe cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any\r\nwhiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album - a\r\nwinding, alllllmost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile\r\n- is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy's\r\nlyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self awareness that never\r\nslides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical - and\r\nultimately as forgiving - of themselves as they are the melting world\r\naround them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power:\r\naffirming life without denying death.\r\nRecorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree California,\r\nand Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange of\r\nold and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums\r\nare condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delve\r\ninto superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy,\r\nthey deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctly\r\nunprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work that\r\ninterrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exalts\r\nit's sacredness.\r\nRed Mile's de facto thesis statement \"The Medium\" is itself a rock song\r\nmeditation: an ode to the form and it's practitioners. This genre that -\r\ntypical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be - somehow still has the\r\npower to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of \"I love\r\nrock and roll\" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's a\r\nsong guided by faith - if the medium helps us proclaim our love today,\r\nit's worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era where\r\nmusic seems to love hitting it's head against the wall. Crack Cloud's Red\r\nMile is the sound - the feeling! - of the bricks giving way.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alliance Entertainment","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49637406474540,"sku":"656605246314","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/2257\/7708\/files\/4342106-3183768.jpg?v=1724278634","url":"https:\/\/joseyrecords.com\/products\/crack-cloud-red-mile-vinyl-1","provider":"Josey Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}