“The following recording is made up entirely of seven sounds” – a spoken word declaration emerges. Following suit to statement, Clean Cut Kid strings together full-bodied instrumentals and harmonies that take you from zero to enlightenment. The bittersweetness of divinity.
Before static has time to consume the silence, it’s snagged by ‘Anxiety Dreams’. Sporadically, thoughts are severed and re-stitched together with the absence of a silver lining. Each verse is embraced by the sombre truth of “I have to live through losing you”. Faint, yet notable, a choir swoons these seven words back to him. Melodies waltz in synchronization. The vocals of Halls coil beside the mirrored spirals of a bass, bracing for impact of an absence yet to come.
Arms extended, ‘Iconoclast’ delves into a murkier territory. With an agnostic disposition, self-inflicting conviction emerge from unfamiliar waters. “Maybe I messed up the light on her shoulders” – an internalized question looking for a forever waiting answer. Delicate acoustics make their best attempts to blunt the sharpened edge of mortality before adding, “guilt mixed up the body and the blood with the milk of a mother”. Chords scatter into a canopy – creating an atmosphere of their own.
The intricacy of production is their trademark. Layered tracks fracture into incandescent beams of sound, all consuming to the stereo. Trimming away the pressures of conformity, Seven Sounds, Forever. exposes a raw cut for listeners to sink their teeth into. Everything is pure. Nothing is industrialised.
‘Friends’ pulls you to your feet and guides you towards a brighter time in one swift movement. It’s an ode to the company of “fellow men” and the comfort that it can bring. Against a set of nylon strings, a sentiment flourishes. “All the world’s wrongs swirl like ghosts inside my head, I could turn away instead, I turn to face my friends” – a remedy for even the worst of ailments. In gratitude, Halls’ vocals are prolonged like yards of silk in the track’s conclusion.
Edging closer to the core of the album, songs are introduced through snippets of intimate conversation. ‘Keep On Lovin’ You’ reads like a confession scribbled down on the back of a napkin. In three short minutes, lyrics rush to the brain and etch the surrounding air of a French ribbon microphone. A muffled snare palpitates in the motion of a tangible heart. With softness, his love is devout.
Clean Cut Kid’s discography is bound by the art of storytelling. With tracks like ‘Real Big Shadow’, their newest record is no exception. “I cast a real big shadow, you’re proof that flowers can grow in shade” – a criticism to one’s self without affecting the adoration of another. Mike and Evelyn Halls’ gentle “ahhs” soothe each intrusive doubt. Verses depict a life chosen path, playing into the analogy of Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Fig Tree’ – additionally the inspiration for the album cover.
The sound of ‘Fear Of God’ and ‘Any Given Afternoon’ ying and yang together in spiritual harmony. Courtesy of Higginson, the former provides a warrant for a kickdrum, slinking its way into your brain. While the latter rises and falls in exhales of intensity and inhales of grace.
Halls’ lyricism demonstrates that he is able to wield a pen as deftly as he wields a guitar. ‘Cataract’ resembles a lullaby through words of “I think about the shape of our relationship and the years you have remaining”. Coos of “clouds in your eyes it’s raining” orbit round acoustics.
‘I’m A Piece Of Shit’’s line, “I sat here and let time slip away, watch the train leaving the station” is the twin flame to the track ‘Hit And Miss’ that resides in their fourth studio album, Hiss. Strumming of a singular guitar gives way to potent instrumentation of the chorus. ‘Music is Royally Fucked’ reclines back further into reminiscence of yesterday with lyrics “strung out on the ashes of days long gone” tantalising on the tongue. In seven sounds, Clean Cut Kid cultivate a fruitful new era, ripened by experimentation.
Between the rim and the centre of the record, Seven Sounds, Forever. displays a compelling love. It’s the profoundness of tragedy and a worshiped fear. It’s the sound of heaven, or what it unknowingly may be.
Clean Cut Kid: Seven Sounds, Forever – Released 17 December 2025
