Album Review - Clock Opera: Ways To Forget

Clock Opera
Ways To Forget
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Several years ago it seemed everyone was asking who would be the next U2 and take over the mantle of world's biggest rock band. Although Radiohead was mentioned the most, when Radiohead said hell to that and went off to blaze their own trail, everything seemed to point to Coldplay to take over the mantle, who sort of did by finally flowing into their own alterna-pop universe. You never seem to hear anyone asking who is going to be the next Coldplay, do you? If that question ever does arise, I am sure Clock Opera will likely be placed high on the list. Once the solo project of leader/producer Guy Connelly, Clock Opera is now a meaty 4 piece, utilizing what Connolly calls "chop pop," or splicing together bits and pieces of found sounds, electronics, and traditional instrumentation. While this appears to make them sound more experimental, the end result is surprisingly mainstream. Over the past few months I have listened to several of the singles off the band's debut Ways To Forget and was anticipating a album more synth heavy than guitar heavy, somewhere between Delphic's trance induced melancholia and Two Door Cinema Club's melodic bravado, but after going through these 10 tracks, the overwhelming influence is decidedly Coldplay. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that comparison, however, it does conjure up notions of music that is relatively safe and uninspiring. Ways To Forget compiles the wonderful singles already released and fills things out with a batch of anthemic/stadium ready tracks that ingratiate themselves like a lost puppy, but never seem to tug the heartstrings enough to adopt them outright.

The singles themselves still hold up very well. "White Noise" begins over a buzzy bed of synths and Connelly's rich baritone before the drums take over in a Friendly Fires like swirl.



"A Piece Of String" warps and loops guitars and electronics around a deep bass throb, and is pretty much the only track on the album that supports their "chop pop" description.



"Belongings" gets trapped in a lovely Coldplay-esque bed of piano, slowly building up to the finale, that transports the track into something magical.



"Once And For All" begins the album with its anthemic rise, Connelly's voice quivering over the pomp and thump.



And "Lesson No. 7" again brings back the looped guitar parts and ups the tempo for this driving track.



Unfortunately, once you get through the singles, you have basically heard the Clock Opera template: songs starting subtly, usually quiet keyboards or looped guitars, quietly building in the middle with additional instrumentation, all leading the inevitable big finale where the song reaches a fever pitch. Not to say that these songs are not well-produced and/or catchy, but more to say there is a distinct lack of surprise and wonder here. It is just a solid set of electronic heavy stadium pop. You can easily see them in a few years on main stages at festivals, leading the crowd in sing-a-longs. But I was left wanting more, to hear something I hadn't heard before. In fact, the last 3 tracks all follow the exact same format: beatless, piano driven intro, with new instrumentation built in layer after layer, until none of these tracks can be distinguished from one another. Only on "Man Made" does anything resembling insistence approach the listener. The dense throb and almost funky back beat stands out in a sea of similarity.



Ways To Forget has a very likable quality to it, and it is a solid, if slightly predictable pop album. It almost seems as if they had this nice collection of singles but needed to get a full album out, and just set the songwriting on auto-pilot in order to fill two sides of a record. I am hoping that they take a little more time on the next release and start fleshing their songs out to sound more distinct and to bypass all those Coldplay references.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.