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Cotton Was King, deposed by Clouds

Andrew Otwell | Seattle, WA | 04/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a joy it was to hear Robert Harrison's voice a few months ago on a podcast I listen to. I lived in Austin in the 1990's when his old band Cotton Mather was making some of the best guitar pop of the decade. Their album Kontiki was an amazing blend of lo-fi Beatles, ELO orchestration, and endlessly catchy tunes. Their next release "The Big Picture" was under-appreciated, but was a gem. (All of Cotton Mathers' CDs now go for forty or fifty dollars on the used market.) I was always especially a sucker for Cotton Mather's guitar player Whit Willams' playing, but it's clear with Harrison's new project how much of Cotton Mather's sound was his own.



It's pretty audacious to put out a double album as a first release, but Harrison's a mature songwriter, so he's obviously got a backlog of great tunes. There are a few songs here that are as good as anything Cotton Mather ever put out, "Hurricane Judy" is a dense, catchy, guitar-driven tune; it's impossible not to call it Beatlesesque. "Get Your Boots On" is almost heavy, well, at least as heavy as this kind of thing gets. "Build Havana" is lovely, but in a totally different way. "Dr No" is a great tune with some of Harrison's cleverest lyrics yet. It reminds me of the fussier stuff on CM's "Cotton is King", sort of reminiscent of Squeeze. If "Back Seat Silver Jet Sighter" doesn't take off in quite the direction I'd hoped it would based on the first few notes, it certainly goes somewhere wonderful, ending up with horns and tubular bells chiming away.



In short, if you ever liked Cotton Mather, you should like Future Clouds a lot, though it's not quite as direct as that band's music. It takes a few listens to get into the tunes. "Drugstore Bust" for example, starts out very strangely. Harrison's developed a real love for the sound of Pro Tools, which lets musicians cut and paste sounds and collage them. "Drugstore" first minutes are fragile, shuddering and odd, the song eventually settles into something you'll be singing for days. (Even if you can't make sense of the abstract lyrics.)



There's only one or two outright bad numbers. "The Great Escape" is an upbeat song that just sounds both bland and dishonest--like an attempt at a "hit song". Like with every double-album ever, there's some tedious filler here, too. I'll be skipping over experimental things like "Cowboy Weather" and "Letters to Junius", thanks. But there's a lot less of that than you'd think for a double album, and Disc 2 is actually really strong right to the end, where you get the straight pop of "Altitude" followed by the Irish-sounding(?) "Christmas Day 1923" and the rocking closer "Safety Zone"."

Album of 2007

M. Gaines | Alabama, United States | 05/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hands down, as other previous reviewers have stated, this is without doubt some of the most inventive pop writing anyone will encounter this year. Not being familiar with Robert Harrison's previous work with Cotton Mather I decided to listen to what buzz I had been reading surrounding this piece of work. Harrison has simply absorbed and assimilated Beatlesque melodies as well as a plateau of 70's pop greats and reinvented those influences, coming up with an album that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any masterpiece of the past.

An amazing work that beacons you back time and time again!

"

Ambition pays off again for Robert Harrison...

MarathonMan | Norfolk | 05/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Cotton Mather were a great band, simple as really, and with the endorsement of the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, they did manage to get a reasonable fanbase in the UK. I must admit having purchased Cotton is King at a record fair in the mid 90's I hoped that they would forever be my little secret but alas no.



Anyway, Cotton is King came and went and I thought that was my lot but then to my surprise I sourced Kontiki from the USA and my love affair with Cotton Mather was back on. Further releases including the stop gap Hotel Baltimore and their final effort The Big Picture confirmed the fact that Robert Harrison was a very ambitious and talented song writer. When I heard they had disbanded I was extremely upset, although I was proud of the fact I had managed to see them live on two occasions in London. Something I never thought would have been possible when I purchased Cotton is King all those years back.



So then silence for a few years and then I got wind of new developments, it looked as though Harrison was going to be working on solo stuff and a new record was possible. It then turned out that he had indeed formed a new band, the name Future Clouds and Radar. Word from the camp was that Harrison had got a huge number of songs written and being the typically ambitious songwriter that he is, had decided to release a double album as FC&R's debut.



The problem with double albums is often quality control and when I heard some of the tracks were overly experimental I must admit I was very concerned. Sure Cotton Mather did experiment but at the end of the day the classic songwriting shone through. Had Harrison really gone away from his Beatle-esque beliefs and gone totally experimental? In a word "no".



On first listen FCR's debut release is not as instant as a Cotton Mather album, however on repeated plays the songs really come into a world of their own and standards are kept at an unbelieveably high level during the entire 27 tracks. There are a couple of fillers "Letters to Junius" and "Cowboy Weather" are snippets of sounds but with each clocking in at just over the minute mark, they don't really do any harm to album as a whole. The rest is just brilliant.



Highlights for me are:

Disc1

Let Me Get Your Coat

Hurricane Judy

You Will be Loved

Holy Janet Comes on Waves (the most Cotton Mather sounding)

Our Time

Green Mountain Clover



Disc 2

Build Havanna

Dr No

Malice of Stars

Altitude

Armitage Shanks

Christmas Day 1923

Safety Zone



If I had to choose, I would say that Disc 2 is slightly stronger than Disc 1 and really ends on a high note with the classic pop of Armitage Shanks, the Irish sounding Christmas Day 1923 and very Cotton Mather-esque Safety Zone.



The double disc is ambitious and as with most albums of this variety you do wonder whether slimming it down to one disc would have made it even better. On this occasion I think not, the 2 discs flow extremely well with a very clever track order.



Classic songwriting doesn't get much better in my book and Harrison must be applauded for once again coming up trumps. If you liked Cotton Mather you will certainly like this, although it may take a couple of listens to really appreciate it.



The best release of 2007 so far."