Cloakroom is one of these bands that not enough people listen to, even though most people would like them: Heavy but melodic. Warm but not overwhelming. Intelligent not arrogant. A band to love and they got a new record out - Last Leg of the Human Table. Let‘s dive into it!
First thing: When a cloakroom is something somewhat secretive, for who knows what’s happening behind that bar, in that little room when we are not there, then the “only” thing secretive about Cloakroom is their ability to come up with such remarkable records that are raucous and gentle at once. How can a band that seemingly has a lot of humor (which connects them to folks like Red Fang for example) achieve a sound that is not silly? Probably by differentiating between themselves and their music – the first being object to humor, the latter rather not.
Last Leg of the Human Table is their shortest record to date and it is really concise, none of the eight tracks (let’s leave the two interludes aside for a moment) crosses the 5:40 minute mark, none is shorter than 3:19. BUT when listening to the record it surely feels much longer and that is achieved through some simple but effective means: The sound is larger than life, a huge wall of sound, and when they play the “old” quiet-vs-loud game it helps make the songs seem even bigger. Here the two interludes surely come into play: Not only are they the most Americana that Cloakroom has ever been, no even more do they share very similar titles (”On Joy and Unbelieving” & “On Joy and Undeserving”) and finally do they even share the same position, splitting A-side and B-side in the middle, basically creating four chapters, two on each side of the watershed. Both tracks are very melancholic and rather quiet so that the tracks following or preceding jump much crunchier into our ear channels which they do not want to leave for their hooks are immensely catching. Track two, ”Ester Wind” with its bubblegum appeal (think of Weezer hooking up with Spotlights) as well as ”Clover Looper”, the track nine (which sounds like a collaboration between The Jesus and Mary Chain and the punkish side of the Goo Goo Dolls), are amazingly clever and successfully burn themselves into everyone’s frontal lobe.
Generally the whole record is like a roller-coaster, a very joyful one, which doesn’t scare you too much, only a bit. You are less afraid for your life but more of losing your glasses or phone. Unbelonging is the Cure track that Everclear was never able to give us, ”Bad Larry” is the La’s version of Calexico. And one could come up with one comparison for each track, but let me just turn to the sensible side of Cloakroom once more: Do not mistake their music for just that – they have something to say: Last Leg of the Human Table may sound sardonic and sarcastic, however look at it more closely for a moment: When we are sitting at our table, and this last leg is breaking as well – who or what can hold it up? No one and nothing, right? But if there is no table, then what can bring us together, help us bridge our differences, show us means and methods of upholding our sane future? What could substitute the table, once it’s gone? Looking at what the idiot in the big house on Penn Ave is doing, I am afraid, the only answer is “Nothing”. We are breaking it. So, maybe, in some way, this record is (and here comes the last comparison) the ” End of the World as we know it (and ‘we’ feel fine)” when listening to this as its soundtrack.
