Texas Platters

The Clouds Are Ghosts

Jason Morris' yearning lyricism knows no middle ground. "There was a time when you wandered like a child, such innocent slumber," he recalls on lithe, bounding centerpiece "Angelface." The Austin electro-pop sextet's second LP Fractures revels in melodrama, the heavy apocalyptic stuff that makes proletarians regress and tinfoil hats swoon. That's because desire and ache are best told through starfire guitars and atmospheric synth residue. Clouds Are Ghosts bring to mind UK art-rockers Foals on the skittering, tactile breakbeats coating "Blue," and the digital lullaby "Singularity." Closer "Decimeters" glistens like any number of tear-jerking Explosions in the Sky ballads, where Morris tempers his vocals to a smolder. These Fractures are simple, well-executed pleasures.