Album Review: The Black Angels - Clear Lake Forest

The “mini-album” is a strange creature. It can’t, by rights, justifiably take its place in a collection of full-length LPs, but there’s significantly more substance on it than on a traditional five-track EP. The equation of seven songs on The Black Angels’ Clear Lake Forest is no exception. It’s no entrée, but it’s certainly not a main course, so it’s hard to know how to feel once it’s all over.

Pound for pound, Clear Lake Forest is as strong as any of the Austin band’s significant back catalogue. Hot on the heels of 2013’s full-length Indigo Meadow, it could easily be read as an extension of that album’s upbeat, sun-drenched sound – especially when contrasted against some of their earlier efforts, such as their brilliant 2004 debut, the darker Passover.

Clear Lake Forest furthers The Black Angels’ legacy as the pre-eminent psychedelic rock band (Tame Impala might have a claim to the throne, but The Black Angels have a few more years under their belts). While it doesn’t stray far from their proven formula of organs, drone machines and washed-out vocals, it will hopefully once again show the also-rans how the genre should sound in the 21st Century.

Really, the only detraction – and it is a mighty one – is that there just isn’t enough meat on the record to sink one’s teeth into. With only one of the seven tracks checking in at over four minutes (Linda’s Gone, 6:36), it’s finished before you know it.