Light and Shadow

Electronic Pop music of the 70s and early 80s presented a hopeful yet bleek vision of the future by fusing mechanical rhythms, colorful synthesizers, and warm yet strangely distant vocals. Despite wearing their influences on their sleeve, Clor manage to capture that musical ideology on their self-titled debut album.The album is a moody, semi-danceable array of cosmic confections that recycle the aesthetics of late 1970s English Pop and early 1980s German Electro. The space-age “Outlines” and the futuristic groove of “Lost and Found” with its sexual connotations and Reading Rainbow synth splashes are two pleasant examples of this. Along with the aforementioned tunes, the catchy choruses and angular guitars of the “Good Stuff” help to make the first fifteen minutes of Clor thoroughly enjoyable but safe nevertheless.



The more challenging moments occur when Clor employ sinister electronics and offset them with serene lyricism. For example, the song “Dangerzone” is a haunting tune with stiff beats and twisted industrial tones. The music grows gloomier as lead singer Barry Dobbins’ wobbly, optimistic voice cuts through the blackness, “Let’s vacate the beaches / Of far distant shores / Emerge from the blackness / Into the blue, blue, blue, blue day.” His voice is derivative and his lyrics are not the most unique, but he does maintain a compelling sense of instability when juxtaposed with the band’s skewed yet stable music.



On the surface Clor appears to be just another retro New Wave band that will most likely fade away. However, take a deeper listen to Clor and one will hear a band that possesses a great talent for Pop songwriting and, hopefully, the potential to shed their influences.