An album of craftwork and challenge
'No Kind Of Life' is a number that attempts to build layer upon layer to give itself depth and body. Great if you can do it and do it fast enough, but unfortunately this doesn't happen here and it becomes boring. Whereas'Neon' is in another league and moves you not only in the way it makes use of a bluesy beat, but also in terrific vocals.
'Good Clean Fun' uses a subtle blend of sixties pop style vocals against a deliciously decadent backdrop of sound. This is the musical equivalent of the sweets you shouldn't take from strangers. Roll this number around your head.
'Finally Free' makes use of a 'Vines' style sound yet manages to still be good enough to stand up on its own. Whilst 'You Can't Have Me' is too vacuous and repetitive to work.
The title track 'Amber' has Pink Floyd meets a dark angel stamped through it. A spine tingling finale really shows the shadow lands that lurk in this song.
'I Hate It That I Got What I Wanted' is a thrash, clash of a song that is impossible not to move to. Then you get 'Here To Learn' with wailing electronic walls of sounds backing vocals that have an unnerving feel of menace to them. This a great number, but may take several plays to be comfortable with, but it's worth it. 'Dreamt That You Died' with its 'Country' feel and bloody depressing lyrics is not one to play on a bad day.
Hypnotically poetic describes 'Widescreen', with lines like "I'm the first to confess I get used to being unhappy, I get caught in a loop like a scratched cd" and "So do you ever feel you've been smoked down to the filter" describing the moodiness that pervades this track, coming at you like fog on a Sherlock Holmes movie.
'It's Getting Light Outside' has a mixture of that sixties pop sound with a dash of hippy spiralling and this makes it one you want to listen to without knowing why. A very clever creation gradually makes itself known in this number.
First impressions are important, so whlie this album starts off with a number that is directionless and boring, the rest is a brilliant movement through a range of sounds and styles that Clearlake put their stamp of excellence on. This is an album of craftwork and challenge.