If you want to know what the album sounds like, look at the cover: A trip through Mild High Club's New Album

If you want to know what Mild High Club’s new album is like, Going Going Gone, all you have to do is imagine what it would be like to take a trip into the album cover. I’ll try to explain. 

By Lily Brooks

All aboard the Mild High Club intergalactic spaceship. Buckle your seatbelt and enjoy the ride through dimensions and we are going, going, gone! The first song, ‘Klugus l’ introduces you to the journey you will be taking for the next 29 minutes and 44 seconds. You hear spacecraft starting up and zooming seamlessly into the abyss. The rest of the song is what plays in the high-tech and spacious lounge. You sip your cocktail looking at the stars and planets outside the windows as the smooth futuristic ‘cruise ship jazz’ band plays behind you. 

‘Dioysian State’ is the next jam on the list, sticking with that futuristic groove but with an edge. The title describes the feeling the music tries to emulate. The limited lyrics flow in the background for a portion of the song, “to the Dioysian State, where the pleasure feeds the taste of you.” 

The song was accompanied with a psychedelic, animated video loop they posted to their Youtube Channel. Maybe it's the vision you see looking out into the void from the comfort of your room on the UFO.  

Abstract jazz is the main influence on this record, pulling sound inspiration it seems from Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way record and Steely Dan, according to some fans. 

‘Trash Heap’ is the song that most resembles a Vegas casino band, but that can’t be recognized as background fluff. Ironically, one of the lyrics says “I was past doubt, at the slot machine, all my quarters in the bin.” 

The lyrics are hard to comprehend as they blend into the background. It twists the tired and overdone genre to fit their new sound in a way that creates a new niche.

The mind bending ‘Taste Tomorrow’ is the album's most trippy song with echoey lyrics and swelling beats with a cascading piano.

You are now dancing with the other lucky passengers and the disco lights highlight your loud eccentric attire. 

A lot of the album has a prominent piano, which often feels improvised. Bells and whistles flutter in the background that adds to the psychedelic aspect of the album without taking too much attention from the piano, and in other songs guitars and trumpets. 

You're not half-way through with the album and you already feel yourself entering this new vibrant galactic experience. The sound makes more sense with each minute you’re onboard. 

A small artist from Brazil, Winter, takes the stage as the only feature on the album. She  sings softly in Portuguese to the rhythm of a funky upbeat backtrack. Pulling influence from the samba in some parts while still maintaining that jazz undertone with the hallucinatory sound effects in the background, such as whistles and clashing. 

The fever-dream continues on through the album. Some songs like ‘Waving’ and ‘Me Myself and Dollar Hell’ almost sound like they could be written in this decade as well as a thousand years in the future or fifty years ago. 

The last song feels like it's thanking you for coming along. ‘Holding On To Me’ is the bow while the curtain closes and everyone says their goodnights. After what seems to be like two minutes and two years at the same time, you land back to Earth but you left your conscious somewhere… 

Everything about this album sticks out. Mild High Club creates their own genre by blending and packing as much they can into one track. 

Going Going Gone is much different than their past work. Lyrics are not the focus in any of the songs as it highlights the production. 

The choice to stray away from current music conventions could be Alex Brettin’s (the leader of the group) way of criticizing how the world is now. The lead single from the album, ‘Me Myself and Dollar Hell’ says “America, what the fuck?.. Shy of half a billion guns.” 

It has been five years since they put out their last album, Skiptracing. It’s safe to say they have changed as a group and are thinking about the sound of the future, while still paying homage to timeless styles of music.