Clearlake - Cedars

  by Richard Landowski

published: 26 / 3 / 2003

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Wow – the cover says it all here. A cedar tree surrounded with a bit of blue sky and grey clouds looming from all directions. This could be a metaphor for Clearlake’s world-inside-of-a-world outlook where reality is but a distraction - though unlike their earlier, more lighthearted take on this imaginary world (I read somewhere that Clearlake is the name of an fictitious town they invented where they reside), ‘Cedars’ sounds as though the barrier has cracked. Gone is the airy, innocent wonder of the early singles and the Clearlake Lido LP. Cedars finds them in a much darker mood – from Jason Pegg’s ominous (and sometimes downright scary) lyrics to the often dirgey chug of the guitars all the way down to the murky production of ex-Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde . The Jumble Sailing’s & I Want To Live In A Dream’s have been replaced with such song titles as ‘The Mind Is Evil’, ‘I’d Like To Hurt You’, ‘Come In To The Darkness’, ‘It’s All Too Much’….you get the picture. As a fan from the first single, I have to say that, while this is a departure from one aspect of what made Clearlake so endearing, 'Cedars' is far from a bad record. I actually listen to it quite a lot – though rarely around others. It’s much more suitable for headphones and a rainy day. Have you ever had a friend that was always bright and positive? Not in an annoying, phoney way, mind you - just someone you could look to and feel like everything was OK. Now, can you remember what it was like to see that person depressed? It’s a terrible feeling. The French, as the saying goes, must have a word for it. That’s why finding Clearlake at such an emotional ebb is worse than hearing, say, Morrisey whine on.. Jason Pegg has his own lyrical style – he’s always telling you not to worry and to find joy in the small things. Get away for a while, he’ll tell you, things will get better. And he does it in a way that doesn’t sound like a medicated self-help guru – rather like someone who’s working through the same things. Now he’s just about to give in. “Come in to the darkness. You’d be surprised what you’ll find. Come in to the darkness. Kiss everything else goodbye” he sings. Man, The record begins on a positive enough note with the single ‘Almost The Same’ suggesting the existence of a friendship he initially thought wasn’t possible - but quickly dives in to the paranoia of ‘The Mind Is Evil’. His heart is good, Pegg asserts, but it doesn’t really matter since his mind is evil and always one step ahead of him. Next is the absolutely excellent ‘Wonder If The Snow Will Settle’ which, while still somewhat sad (“I wonder whether losing you was such a good idea”) has traces of the old hope (“What’s the point of worrying ‘how will things turn out?’. Why spoil the surprise?”). It’s also just a damn catchy song and would be a wise candidate for the next single. The rocking (for Clearlake) ‘Can’t Feel A Thing’ purposely numbs the listener with the repeated chanting of “I can’t feel a thing, can’t feel a thing, can’t feel a thing……” then wakes you up with the creepy sentiment of I’d Like To Hurt You’ (“I wouldn’t hurt a fly. But I’d really like to punish you. D’you want to know why? Cos I don’t have a good excuse”). The vibe I get from this record isn’t so much one of heartbreak (the theme of many a band’s ‘depressing record’) - though it does creep in – but of a loss of innocence. Pardon the cliché but it’s undeniable. We all feel we’ve been up against the world at times & the one thing that keeps us going is the conviction that we’re better than all the evil shit. You get the feeling here that the existence of evil – at least the potential for evil – has been detected in the collective Clearlake soul. As ‘Come In to The Darkness’ declares: “Don’t try & tell me you’ve never been cruel. You won’t convince me you’re always kind as a rule. I wouldn’t blame you for lashing out now and then.” ‘Just Off The Coast’ is a classic postscript to all these human frailties. “The coast” in this case being the place (and we all dream of it) where we’ll meet again & reconcile everything. You could say he’s writing about an afterlife but I don’t feel the song is about death. Just a longing for a wiser time. It serves as a welcome interlude to all the bitter realities. ‘Keep Smiling’ is the flip of the old Clearlake coin. A nice melancholic Velvets-ey groover, the advice here is to ‘nod, smile, say “yes”, do whatever “they” say - then do the exact opposite’. Good advice but you can’t help notice the near broken-spirited vibe of the delivery and sound. After all, if you have to TELL someone to keep smiling……. The record hits it’s all time emotional low with 'It’s All Too Much'. It's a song whose music, while definitely not throwaway, serves first and foremost as an impressionistic background to the words ("What’s wrong with being weak? Who wants to fight to speak?”). Bleak & sparse when the sentiment requires (and it requires – trust me!) - often reduced to a rumble which only gives way to heavy drumming when the chant of “It’s all too much” comes in. The lack of space between this & the final 2 songs suggest a 3 song cycle which, if mapped out, would show a steady trail upwards. 'Treat Yourself With Kindness' fools with the adage of “do unto others” with the chorus of “Do unto yourself as you might wish thy will be done by someone else and try your best to treat yourself with just a little kindness”. A repetitive piano outro gives way to the absolute beauty of ‘Trees In The City’ – an ending song to rival the best of our generation. It is a hymn to the inexplicable presence of beauty in even the most cold, rotten environments. There is an ESSENTIAL ending to this sadness which washes away everything that came before it with a simple statement of hope: “I wouldn’t have thought anything living could grow. Here what with the smoke that I can smell on your clothes. There’s mud on your shoes, there’s dirt in your hair. Still maybe the trees in the city are still there”. This is delivered in a way that I would be a fool to try to describe. It’s perfect, & it’s music that makes you cry. If you think that’s silly, then this sad record is about you. Fortunately, Clearlake sound like they’ve made it through. They’ve also made an excellent record that, while definitely a mood, establishes them as serious contenders for the reclamation of classic English pop. Their next record is going to be absolutely amazing.

Track Listing:-

1 Almost The Same
2 The Mind Is Evil
3 Wonder If The Snow Will Settle
4 Can't Feel A Thing
5 I'd Like To Hurt You
6 Come Into Darkness
7 Just Off The Coast
8 Keep Smiling
9 It's All Too Much
10 Treat Yourself With Kindness
11 Trees In The City

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