Playing The First Division on the radio, I realised I never wrote anything much about their ep when it came out in January. So to make amends, but also because I haven't seen anyone else mention it apart from their best friends, I'll take it upon myself to make you regret not having bought it before it sold out. I can't imagine those three songs being re-released anywhere else, like some Cloudberry stuff has been. There's still a chance to pick up Joe Brooker's Arc Lamps ep, at least!
As The First Division, he's joined by twee compatriot Tim Hopkins of Visitors fame. Comparing the ep with the Arc Lamps' release (which is difficult to avoid) these three songs are very much about London - an essay On the City if you will - whereas the songs on the other ep are more about countryside life and experiences. It's also the one that sounds more like The Pines (Joe + Pam Berry), or rather it's got the Mike Jones sound all over it. Much more acoustic, the jangly texture gets a welcome contrast from Tim's now quite coarse voice (he's not sixteen anymore, after all). It works very well together I think, so they both have every reason to be proud of the recordings. You can download "Downriver" from Cloudberry's site, but actually the other two songs are even better. Lyrically, this ep also has more to offer and both the title-track and the "Oil Fires" are brimful of poignant lines. As you can buy it anymore, here's one for the unlucky.
CLOUD 43 The First Division - Oil Fires
3 comments:
Thanks man!
A small handful of thosse EPs will be available for sale at the show we're playing on the 28th in London (with a line-up which continues to boggle and intimidate me and which I'm sure you know about).
And I was never 16, sadly.
how old were you when the visitors formed then?
wish i could catch the london gig!
x
kris
They / we kind of drifted into being over the course of several years following us being 14, I suppose. But I was already 40. I'm younger than that now.
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