Light In Your Mind: Vinyl LP Cymbals

Light in Your Mind is the first new material from CYMBALS in two years, and their first album since January 2014. If the wait seems long for the listener, for those involved in its creation the time in between pulls in a lifetime of unexpected experiences. That Light In Your Mind even exists is a testament to not giving in. That it sounds the way it does is both remarkable and, somehow, inevitable.

Since their inception, CYMBALS line up has been subject to a great deal of change. Amidst that change there has always existed the songwriting duo of Jack Cleverly and Dan Simons, who formed the band in 2011 with the sole intention of “having fun”. A noble aspiration, but one that became increasingly hard to realize when the realities of a 9-5 existence started to corrosively rub against the expectations of being in a band that wanted to tour the world.

At various points over the last six years and across three albums, an EP and single, a rotating cast of at least ten other people have formed some version of CYMBALS. More still have contributed to Light In Your Mind – Justin Goings and Josh Hefferman both provide drums, while Alabaster DePlume plays saxophone on ‘Fully Automated Luxury’. Producer Kristian Robinson (Capitol K) is a major presence across the album and played a key role in guiding the transition from the band’s sound on their previous record to this one (indeed, this was the first time the band spent any significant time in a studio). Jorge Elbrecht, whose work with Ariel Pink and Tamaryn had inspired the band, mixed the record in Miami, adding those elusive final touches that make a good sounding record great. Consequently, the music itself possesses a sedimentary quality, a residue of each contributing member compressed into what it is that band have become. Consistent throughout has been the relationship between Cleverly and Simons. In fact, so consistent is this relationship that despite the involvement of others it wasn’t until everything else was stripped away that the two finally began to be what they first tried to be.

Failing relationships, betrayal, addiction, illness: the emotional challenges were huge. Thankfully, they were not insurmountable, and as with so much creative practice, it was through the music itself that a wider understanding of the world was found.

Second track ‘Car Crash’ addresses that period head-on, a typically effervescent synth line from Simons disguising lyrical content that traverses that fine line between blind arrogance and tortured self-loathing (“I’m a car crash/I’m a river”). Like all the best CYMBALS songs, it deals in unexpected contrasts. Much the same can be said of the structure of the album as a whole, eclectically comprised of melodically memorable pop songs (‘Car Crash’, ‘Talk To Me’), bucolic instrumentals (‘My Body’, ‘Numbers’) and longer, pensive songs that explore the space in between (‘ASMR’, ‘I Thought I Knew You’). Cleverly recognizes that best when commenting on the name of the album:

As final track ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ concludes, a synth loop first heard on the opening track is subtly re-introduced, completing a circle of sorts. Like decay, the album never really ends. And like CYMBALS, at the end it’s born anew again.