They are arguably hippies, but they are certainly not a jam band. Since 2000, the Minneapolis-based Cloud Cult has wowed its fans. However, with 2005's release, Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, Cloud Cult is aiming to make their music something else altogether. Something better.
But before getting into the details of how Cloud Cult's latest will make you love the art of music even more, the environment needs to be discussed. In a world often decorated with the material and insignificant, lead-singer and founder Craig Minowa has had a stirring belief that nature and music can co-exist peacefully. But if producing an album and touring can hurt the environment, how can Minowa's dream work? Fortunately, Minowa is as resourceful as he is a good musician. Minowa's first task was establishing Earthology Records, which is powered with both geothermal and wind power, while the recording studio was built from both recycled and salvaged materials. All of Cloud Cult's albums are packaged in reused jewel cases (donated to Earthology), the CD inserts are 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and printed with nontoxic soy inks, and the nontoxic biodegradable shrink-wrap comes from the University of Illinois. Their latest tour negated any CO2 emissions by planting an acre of trees, the stages were powered by purchasing wind power credits, and the tour van was equipped with solar panels. In addition to all of this, all of Cloud Cult's profits after expenses go donated directly to environmental charity work.
But if you think Cloud Cult is just a bunch of hippies with instruments, you are sadly mistaken. It turns out, you really can combine the best of good environmental standards and good music. Cloud Cult's Hippopotamus draws from a host of the great indie, experimental and rock artists including Beck, Modest Mouse, Built to Spill and Bright Eyes. Listeners will notice immediately that Cloud Cult has a good feel for how to mix just the right amount of electronic keyboard sounds with classical instruments like the cello. Minowa's voice feels like Connor Oberst and Isaac Brock had a kid with its thin wavering and melancholy.
Where Cloud Cult really hits hard is with lyrical content. Most of Minowa's songs don't aim to be long or drawn out, though he does include several musical interludes. Rather, Minowa prefers brief songs (most songs aren't over three minutes) and as a result his messages tend to be more straightforward and harbor a more immediate impact. He has the distinct ability of being able to combine the surreal, depressed, political and nostalgic in Hippopotamus, which is clearly an album dedicated to (as in previous albums) some aspect of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. "What Comes at the End," features Minowa pondering on death, singing, "Will we wake up/In the body of a buffalo/Running through the fields with our old friends/Will we sleep/With our favorite ghosts/And I'm just wondering what comes at the end/I hope I meet you again." If you haven't figured it out yet, Minowa is no conservative, and it doesn't show more than in "Moving to Canada," (I'm assuming this was written post-election). He sings, "And as the ending came/The people watched complacently/And swore that God had meant for it to be this way … And all the people sing/'Long live the king/ for he's a godly thing/ an eagle with just one right wing." In addition, Minowa is able to press on his listeners' emotions in "Washed Your Car", depicting Minowa's fruitless attempt at romance. "I built your cupboard out of my bones/Shoveled your snow with an ice cream cone/Asked if you would be my home/You said, 'leave me alone'," Minowa wails. "Raked your leaves with my toes/tilled your garden with my nose/Asked if you would be my boat/you said, 'No, no, no.'" Minowa's greatest strength is to pull his listeners into point of view and make them realize they share many of his thoughts, regardless of where they're coming from. In Minowa's song about starting anew (appropriately dubbed "Start New"), he sings, "I bought a new shirt and I got new socks, but my skin's still made of memories … and I want to start fresh and I want to start new but my skin's still made of memories … and I'm still alive, I am six feet, but one day will be six feet under." Even, "Transistor Radio," a song about Minowa's relationship with his grandfather, is able to make the listener feel like they are living in Minowa's shoes while still delivering a relatively strong message, "It's been years since I've heard my transistor radio/Yet I keep going to where it seems I'm meant to go/and I finally realized what he wanted to show me/Where I've been/Where I am/Is the show."
Funny I should mention "show." If you ever get the opportunity to see Cloud Cult in person, do it. They put on a mean act, with a trippy projector and artists who paint while the music is being played.
For a band that surfaced in 2000, Cloud Cult has already made a unique imprint on the constantly changing musical world with its dedication to the environment, its pull on various musical styles and its willingness to provide its fans with high quality art.
Grade: A
