"I've been stowed away / out of the rain / needed space / for gathering my strength up..."
The beautiful churning storm of melancholia, loss, resolve, survivorship within the magical "Bloom" by Western MA award winning indie folk band Cloudbelly both confounds and charms in big ways. I mean it is not easy to stun my artistically cynical heart but singer-songwriter Corey Laitman soaks her bloodletting in melodies that surprised me (fully) the first time I heard them because the sense is so far away from the folk or folk pop norm but instead feels like a bedroom pop song that saunters into shades, iterations of Rodgers and Hammerstein (or thereabouts). This makes the bloodletting, the cathartic dance head turning and make no mistake about it, Laitman's lyrics, as poetic as they are, draw blood with knives out.
"I’ve been stowed away
Out of the rain, needed space
For gathering my strength up
Cause the light
In the morning had been sharp as the knives
You used for carving out those words, love"
Out of the rain, needed space
For gathering my strength up
Cause the light
In the morning had been sharp as the knives
You used for carving out those words, love"
AND the melodies that embrace these lyrics, this wise refrain on the chorus, "And it’s been strange sailing these days / The nights turn my empty pockets out / And fill them with moon, and the wind / And the wild, blooming bruise / Of beginning again...", simply knock the breath out of my lungs.
As, the song turns into that aforementioned fertile dance of reflection and resolve you can feel aspects of the human spirit that make you feel wistful. You might feel past weaknesses and you might feel strong.
From Cloudbelly's current album "i know i know i know", Laitman is joined by guitarist and ambient sound sculptor Sam Perry (SVIP), and drummer, producer, and sound mangler Nate Mondschein (who often works under the moniker of Best Mann).
LINER NOTES (highlighted):
Corey wrote the bulk of i know i know i know in the aftermath of the consecutive, tightly-timed implosion of two formative relationships. The album is - among other things - a document of their sincere effort to grieve; to remember; to take stock; to get angry; to forgive; and to reconcile the painful necessity of those relationships coming to an end.
The album’s title (drawn from the chorus of the second single “Handfuls”) points to that knife’s edge divide, between the understanding of the way things are, and the seeming impossibility of embracing it. i know i know i know––acceptance and hesitation packaged in a single turn of phrase. It’s about confronting the fact that when it comes to healing and recovery, we are both the poison and the medicine. It’s about being present with the parts of ourselves that are in pain.
The bones of i know i know i know were recorded at Ghost Hit Recording in West Springfield, MA, with additional layers added and manipulated over the subsequent months from Nate’s production studio, Echo Base, in Mount Holly, VT, and Reed’s home base, The Barn. The album was mixed by Andrew Oedel at Ghost Hit, and mastered by Anni Abigail Casella.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.youtube.com/@cloudbelly
https://www.instagram.com/cloudbellytheband/
https://www.facebook.com/cloudbelly
https://www.cloudbellytheband.com/
https://www.tiktok.com/@cloudbellymusic
Cloudbelly is an award-winning indie folk band from Western MA with a sound that is at once intimate and cinematic. The group is fronted by singer-songwriter Corey Laitman, a former member of the NYC antifolk scene and Signature Sounds record label, whose ethereal poeticisms are delivered in a spellbinding voice that tips its cap to Sufjan Stevens and Joni Mitchell in equal measure. Laitman is joined by guitarist and ambient sound sculptor Sam Perry (SVIP), and drummer, producer, and sound mangler Nate Mondschein (who often works under the moniker of Best Mann)
Cloudbelly’s music has been recognized by the Kerrville New Folk Competition, New Song at Citizen Vinyl, WBUR Tiny Desk Roundup, and Signature Sounds Record Label. The band has played Green River Festival, Arcadia Folk Fest, and Meadowlark Festival, sharing stages with Bonny Light Horseman, Sean Rowe, Josh Ritter and many others. Next up for the band is an extended US tour beginning in February 2024 in support of their upcoming album, i know i know i know.
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