Cloud ControlThe third album from the Blue Mountains trio was four years in the making and has stepped away from the dream pop that soaked their much-lauded albums Bliss Release and Dream Cave.
Having lost a bass player but gained production skill (lead singer Alister Wright recorded and mixed the album) Zone reveals a band that have grown up.
Returned home following a couple of years based in London, it's no surprise that each song reflects different moods. Lead single Zone (This Is How It Feels) is retro-fitted with a wink to Kid Cudi, Treetops seems influenced by the score in Hunt For The Wilderpeople and there's a definite New Radicals anthem sound to Rainbow City.
Heidi Lenffer takes lead vocals on Panopticon and the result is a funky romp through psychedelic town. The bass lead Lacuna is perhaps the closest to 'old' Cloud Control, lamenting the days prior to jetting away.
If you try hard enough you get a sense of nostalgia and longing for the past, which is all the rage right now, but as has been the case in albums past, the Cloud Controllers never feel as if they deliberately push this theme. Rather it's something that occurs naturally, which maintains album three's charm.
