The Morning Clouds‘s Josh Wambeke makes songs that are as lush and teenage-dreamy as Beach House, as pop and sunny as a lazy Beach Boys single, with the ability to lose themselves in the influence of Nirvana and My Blood Valentine.
In 2010, having spent a good many years performing in Phineas Gage and Fell, Wambeke began writing music on his own again in his recording studio in Denver, Colorado. From these solo home recording sessions emerged the “Wasted Youth Blues” EP, which was written, recorded and performed entirely by Wambeke. These days Lanette Walker joins him playing sleepy sweeping synths and organ, Matt Schild on some under-the-radar bass, John Fate playing mid-tempo drums and Spencer Alred on spacey guitar.
What I love about this group is how well they’ve captured a mood in these relatively slo-to-mid-tempo songs. It’s a little foreboding, yet saccharine – hey! Like so many of my favorite ’50s girl group sounds that I’d written about before. It has all my favorite elements of Air‘s “The Virgin Suicides” soundtrack, as well some Roy Orbison hits, with vocals that are just slowed down and understated, and rippling guitars like classic Robin Guthrie on “Heaven Or Las Vegas” by the Cocteau Twins. Oh yeah, it’s all in there.
You can really hear this “haunting” quality, which also lends itself to some sort of bliss of a sound, in organ heavy-hitters like “Trail Of Light” and “Ends“. Here comes my odd association: the latter actually reminds me quite a bit of that song James sings with Donna in Twin Peaks, but this is what it would have been if it weren’t written by the horrible James Hurley and it were a great song (you can really hear it now, can’t you?) Often, this record takes me to a place where I’m dancing with my doomed high school prom date and having the time of my seventeen-year-old life.
Listen to my favorite selections from the album below and be sure to check more out on The Morning Clouds’s websites.
Connect with The Morning Clouds – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter
The Morning Clouds – “A Walk Home”
The Morning Clouds – “The Wrong Things”
The Morning Clouds – “Ends”
