Majical Cloudz will return with their latest effort, “Are You Alone?”, out october 16th via Matador Records. after showcasing a subtle departure from their minimalist tendencies earlier this month with “silver car crash,” the duo recently shared the album’s title track, powered by swelling organ chords that anchor Devon Welsh’s purposefully droll vocal delivery. welsh’s lyrics have always been direct to the point of discomfort, and he adds an extra element of absurdity on “Are You Alone?” as he jockeys between a first and second-person narrative.
Majical Cloudz make gorgeous pop sculptures out of a dearth of building blocks, subsisting on the light touch of multi-instrumentalist Matthew Otto’s organs and drum programming and the roiling, clarion tenor of singer Devon Welsh. Welsh is to Otto what high tide is to the beach; he washes through his producer’s ramparts in a deluge of emotion. A pall of sadness hangs as a backdrop for many of the songs comprising the duo’s third album, Are You Alone?, and in the hands of a less expressive pair of performers, these songs might drag because of it. But Otto’s arrangements pulse with a livening sweetness, and Welsh’s soaring vocals belie the bleakness of his writing. “Silver Car Crash” tweezes peace in the inevitability of death out of the scene of an automotive accident, while “Downtown” muses that love never really has to end because Welsh can keep it alive in song long after the physical connection dissolves. Are You Alone? seems at home in its darkness,
The Fat Angel Sings 