Deep Time - "Clouds"

Austin pop minimalists Jennifer Moore and Adam Jones—formerly known as Yellow Fever until a lawsuit came to town—released their first LP as Deep Time today via Hardly Art. The songs here meet somewhere between calculated intelligent pop and spiky oddball punk: the rhythms are angular and unpredictable, the melodies taught and sharp, and the production a crisp and clean backdrop for Moore's lyrics. The record's single, "Clouds," is a particularly richly executed nugget with fistfuls of killer hooks and playful overlapping harmonies and vocal breakdowns. Here Moore cooly delivers a fragmented narrative seemingly about divorce: one minute she's looking up at the clouds, the next she's commenting, perhaps to her child, "you got bigger while I was away." But here's the real scorcher, directed to what seems to be the narrator's partner:

Can't you see, you had it made? / Who can guess your thoughts anyway now? / Guarantee you had it made. / You know that I'm a taker, found it out today. / Smoothed out papers, never been afraid. / Doubts will leave you bankrupt, caught you stealing change.

I can't say I know exactly what Moore is singing about—it could be a lizard named Charlie—but her lyrics are nevertheless quite brilliantly pieced together in what feels like a stream of conscious storyboard, from the heavy-in-thought glance to the clouds to the two major motifs: "you got bigger while i was away" and "it's all right if you've had enough." It's not often lyrics are worth dissecting—and it's even more uncommon for the instrumental and melodic elements to match it in quality. In short, "Clouds" is a damn fine track.

Snag Deep Time on vinyl from Hardly Art.

Deep Time - "Clouds" (from Deep Time)