Albums of the Year 2012 - #10 Clock Opera - Ways To Forget

“If indie carries on likes this, we’re gonna need a bigger landfill,” said Simon Price of the Independent of Clock Opera’s Ways To Forget. “Predictable arrangements…. middle-of-the-road sentimentalism and lack of killer tunes,” said Drowned In Sound in their 4/10 review. The NME went even further in its 2/10 review:  “If you’re vapid enough to buy into anything this pointless waste of a beard meows into his distortion pedal, you should probably never watch the film Up as you might find it a bit much.”

Yet to the ears of Breaking More Waves we hear something very different. This is a collection of songs that bristle and explode with euphoric climaxes over and over again. Maybe it’s the abundance of crescendos that grated with some reviewers, maybe it’s the way the record is carefully structured in an almost scientific way from spliced loops and live musicianship, or maybe it’s just that the NME reviewer had just been dumped by a man with some facial hair when they wrote the review.

Whatever it is that made some critics shake their head in despair we perceive as rather glorious. From the questioning lyrics that seem to deal with change, relationships and being yourself to the dots, dashes, chimes, beeps and circling notes of songs that drive relentlessly until they lift-off under the guidance of sonic lab-technician Guy Connelly, we find Ways To Forget a life affirming air punching listen.

This album may have been some time in gestation, Clock Opera first appearing on the blog in 2009 and being named as one of our Ones to Watch for 2010 but the wait was worth it. This is a tsunami of record. The critics don’t always get it right.

Clock Opera - The Lost Buoys

Clock Opera - Once & For All