If the previous single, “Ocean of Hours,” mused on the passage of time, then the new one, “If We Could Escape,” sees David Cloyd turning his thoughts instead to the passing of miles, as in leaving one location and escaping to another, a place where fresh starts can be made and personal histories left behind.
Similarly, if that last single used a suitably soft and reflective mood to make its point, here, the groove, the lilting rhythm, and the energy that drives things on perfectly match the lulling loop and seductive sensations that come from the feeling of travel, both in physical form and via a sense of anticipation.
There is a collision of sounds here, a meeting of styles that doesn’t often come together. On the one hand, the acoustic flow has quite a folk finesse to it, the vocals slightly dreamlike, thanks to Cloyd’s soft and subtle, warm and welcoming vocals and the rhythms and beats that shape the structure are pretty New Wave in effect. It’s as if XTC and Neutral Milk Hotel had come together in some alternative timeline to make music.
This is the final stand-alone single from his new album, Red Sky Warning, which is out in early June, and it not only promises to be a great album but one that proves that David Cloyd is back, and back with a vengeance.
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