Review Summary: Light Chasers paints a picture from beginning to end with stories of life, the universe, and the human soul.
Front man Craig Minowa and his wife Connie Minowa (visual artist of Cloud Cult) were happy parents of a child in 2002. Some extenuating circumstance occurs and they are left to mourn the loss of their child. Craig and Connie have since tried to escape the horrible nightmares of their dead child through their music, with albums like Aurora Borealis and Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus. While listening to this installment of the band's repertoire, you can feel the acceptance of the tragedy. With this acceptance comes the ascending light and new birth that is heard throughout the album. Light Chasers paints a picture from beginning to end with stories of life, the universe, and the human soul.
The album opener "Unexplainable Stories" has a cheesy feel to it at times, but that does not stop the abnormal story from starting its launch. "Unexplainable Stories" is the beginning of a civilizations last attempt to exist. Through events we cannot see, we can hear the countdown and the launch as Minowa tells that the captain is telling us to brace ourselves. This is it. The French horns open the song with the string section playing underneath. There is more and more build up adding guitars, a simple drum beat drops, and the launch happens. Propelling us into the next adventure.
"You'll Be Bright (Invocation Part 1)" is the beckoning to join adventures that occur all around us, but we may not always have the courage. A simple guitar strums in the background as the drums lay it down and the bells kick it. Minowa belts out to let what comes in and let things go that don’t. The story continues, elaborating on the highs and the lows that come with their search.
The story progresses in like suit and ends with one of the strongest and loudest songs on the album, “There’s So Much Energy In Us”. This song ties together an epic journey of love, life, and even death. They have been looking for so long and have been miserable and losing hope. However they still have the tiniest shred of hope left. And the song begins to grow and they use everything they have to have one last shot at reaching that final end point. At 7:23, it is the longest song on the album with the most raw power, growth, and emotion. The crew begins to fade. But they still have energy. After a huge growth, ending with crashing, open hi hats and big, booming hits of a bass drum. The song finally begins to fade as does the Captain and his crew. Thus ends their epic journey through life and the universe.
Light Chasers is an album where once it ends, you can’t help but to shed a single tear and also have a beaming grin on your face. The faith of the characters that Minowa’s lyrics have created gives the sense that people can do and overcome extraordinary feats, while also seeing happiness in the end of the journey. The emotion that this album brings is sometimes astonishing. This album may be the sort of album that you have to listen to several times to pick up on some things you may not have noticed the first time. The only thing you can do is to just have faith.
