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By Chris Pacifico
Clearlake surely lives up to the old adage that the third time is a charm on their number three album as these Brighton boys have created an effort that is divergent, dreamy, and placid. While encompassing a sound that reaches the audible middle ground between the likes of My Bloody Valentine and the Smiths, Amber is surrounded by layers of a certain icy haze that Clearlake has created and mastered all on their own.
"No Kind of Life" sails at the helm of some glistening, droning resonance while "It’s Getting Light Outside" is a melancholy, mod-laden, staccato delight, exhibiting the pop connotations that slightly rear their heads throughout the tracks. Singer Jason Pegg (who also produced along with Steve Osborne (U2) and Jim Abbiss (DJ Shadow)) sings with an utterance that is a mild warble mixed with the texture of a croon.
Numbers like the title track and serenades such as "You Can’t Have Me" are in a tepid pool of cluttering twinkles that exhibit that Clearlake goes over no rough patches when going through a realm of orchestral space rock. Even with "Good Clean Fun," the wrangle and jangles emit from the shoe-gazer guitar fuzz with a nominally hedonistic rhythm and some razor-sharp reverb that zigs and zags throughout. "Finally Free" is a skewed Sixties romp as "Dreamt that You Died" goes on a post-rock sprawl.
With its foggy hooks and melodies that are tuneful, Amber is a surreal rush that is as intense as it is soothing.
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