Along with Uncle Tom Cobbley, Tim and Todd Tobias lay claim to having been a part of the loose ensemble of lo-fi misfits that have over the course of the years made up the godfathers of lo-fi rock, Guided By Voices led by singer/songwriter Robert Pollard. Tim was the bass player for a few years and Todd produced a spate of recent albums for the band. But that’s where the connection ends. Anybody hoping for a block of well-crafted space rock will be disappointed by this overlong, indulgent and poorly produced crock of fool’s gold. The folksy glam peculiarities of opening track, ‘Accidents Of The Air’ starts the album promisingly enough – full of Mott The Hoople vigour and nasally rasp – but ‘Nowhere Is Everywhere’, ‘Blades and Teeth’ and ‘Are You Sleeping Well?’ replicate everyone from the Beatles to Bowie and Husker Du respectively. Fans of The Replacements might tip a nod in their direction too. And this is the problem, Tim and Todd are evidently great fans of music first, and innovators second, if at all. There’s no doubting their knowledge, but their ability to extend that knowledge further is really rather questionable on the evidence of this debut alone. Not even the faux-Bowie surrealism redeems it any.
Clouds Forming Crowns maskes some adventurous and attractive suggestions, but too few clear statements.