Cløudy Skies had me waiting for the guitars to turn ugly. There’s plenty of time spent with these clean, ringing melodies, and I like the sound of them, but I kept wanting the duo to push things further instead of letting another stretch of dreamy atmosphere roll by. When the heavier parts finally kick in, I’m much more interested. The annoying thing is that the band can clearly write those moments; sometimes they just make you wait longer than necessary to get to them.
“Depth Spell” runs for over ten minutes, which is a lot of time to ask from one song. It mostly holds together, but I can’t say I was hanging on every minute of it. Sometimes a melody comes around again and again, and I get what they’re doing well before the song decides to move on. The heavy parts help, though even those don’t always hit as hard as they could. A bit of trimming wouldn’t hurt this album at all.
“Lights of the Night” was more my thing. Keijo Niimimaa from Rotten Sound is an unexpected guest on a record like this, and his harsh vocals give the song a real kick. That clash between the ringing guitars and his voice is great precisely because it doesn’t feel too comfortable. Chris Richard from Nature Morte appears on the title track, too, but Niimimaa’s part is the one I kept thinking about afterwards.
The clean guitars are what make the album worth hearing in the first place. There’s a lot of care in those sounds, and the band knows how to make the music feel fragile before bringing in the noise. The clean vocals don’t always do as much for me, and some of the transitions feel a bit awkward. I also got impatient with the constant drifting in and out of heavy sections. When it works, the shift is satisfying; when it doesn’t, it feels like the song has lost its nerve and needs another few minutes to work up to something.
“Living Inside a Dream” has synths and sampled pedal steel instead of the usual guitar-heavy approach. Odd choice, but I didn’t hate it. “Birdsong” is another quieter, electronic piece, and both tracks give your ears a rest. Still, with all the slow passages elsewhere, I was beginning to feel that the album had plenty of breathing room already. Good stuff! Recommended!
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Argonauta Records on October 16, 2026
Music source for review – Grand Sounds PR
