Canadian’s Crack Cloud have announced details of new album Tough Baby, to be released on September 16th via Meat Machine in Europe and their own Crack Cloud Media Studio in North America. The new album is the follow up to the Vancouver collective’s critically-acclaimed debut Pain Olympics, released in 2020. The album news is supported by the release of lead single ‘Please Yourself’.
The new single solidifies the band’s reputation for experimental and playful Pop with a sharp and erudite message. It’s a transcendent epic that takes the batton from fellow Canadian’s Broken Social Scene and runs with it. The music has plenty of nuances with resplendent stabs of horns and uplifting choral vocals resting on the guitar arpeggios. The song breaks down midway through and transforms into a thought-provoking spoken word poem with an elegant piano loop accompanyment.
The video plays into the ethos of the band that looks to use the influence of art to enhance and heal; it features a cameo from Mac Demarco. See the video below.
Frontman, drummer and lyricist Zach Choy explained more “As a kid, my bedroom was an altar. The images on the wall represented much of what I idolised and aspired to be. This sort of deification of pop culture helped to reinforce my sense of self narrative, however fabricated. But it also provided a sense of solidarity… with a subculture that validated insecurities in a personable way. This is what makes the media industry such a profound paradox. It is as much a source of inspiration for people, as it is an engineered illusion.”
“The subtext of the video is really as follows: art is a mechanism for healing and discovery. You learn through it, and you grow with it. In our culture we’re predisposed to quantifying art, to sanctioning it, and to manufacturing it. But underneath all of that, it is a form of living inquiry; it’s how we learn to unravel the extremities in life so that we may better understand ourselves, and each other.”
Tracklisting for Tough Baby
- Danny’s Message
- The Politician
- Costly Engineered Illusion
- Please Yourself
- Virtuous Industry
- Tough Baby
- Criminal
- 115 At Night
- Afterthought (Sukhi’s Prayer)
- Crackin Up
Crack Cloud are also on an extensive tour of European shows and festivals, with some of the UK dates – indicated by the *- as support for Osees. Dates are:
MAY
14th: The Cluny – Newcastle
15th: Albert Hall – Manchester*
16th: Yellow Arch Studios – Sheffield
17th: The Marble Factory – Bristol*
18th: Brixton Electric – London*
21st: Salon IKSV – Istanbul, Turkey
25th: Underdogs – Prague, Czech Republic
27th: Immergut Festival – Neustrelitz, Germany
28th: Plan B – Malmo, Sweden
29th: Mayhem – Copenhagen, Denmark
30th: Alter – Aarhus, Denmark
JUNE
1st: L’Aeronef – Lille, France
2nd: La Vapeur – Dijon, France
3rd: Kilbi – Dudingen, Switzerland
4th: Festival Yeah! – Lourmarin, France
5th: Levitation Festival – Angers, France
10th: Control Club – Bucharest, Romania
11th: Usina Festival – Luxembourg
JULY
7th: Pohoda Festival – Trencin, Slovakia
10th: Fluc – Vienna, Austria
11th: Ex Convento San Francesco – Pordenone, Italy
12th: Hana-Bi – Ravenna, Italy
14th: Manufaktur – Schorndorf, Germany
15th: Welcome To The Village – Leeuwarden, Netherlands
16th: Rock Herk – Herk De Stad, Belgium (5pm)
16th: Valkhof – Nijmegen, Netherlands (11pm)
21st: Blues and Folk Festival – Binic, France
22nd: Latitude Festival – Suffolk
23rd: Trades Club – Hebden Bridge
24th: Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff
25th: The Boilerroom – Guildford
26th: Mash – Cambridge
Photo: Fahim Kassam
