Lucky Cloud, the project of Chicago-based musician Chet Zenor, has a new album out this Friday, March 28 via Ruination Records. Foreground is Zenor’s label debut under his Arthur Russell-minded moniker, and he’s been slowly teasing it this spring with tracks like “Invitation,” “Vacation Again” and the title track. For a band that played its first gig together just a few hours before the pandemic in 2020 and has since had a shift in membership, Lucky Cloud’s full-length introduction is a bold, expansive and lived-in statement.
On today’s single, “You Know,” Zenor works closely with bassist Jakob Heinemann, pedal steel guitarist Max Subar and drummer Andy Danstrom. The track, which is new to me but maybe old to you, is compelling and polished, featuring splashes of saxophone, Subar’s wayfaring pedal steel and Zenor singing, “Can’t help feeling that you know me more than myself.” The result is this great, jazz-tempered, indie-rock bliss-out. Zenor and his band unlock a real groove here, and “You Know” is a meditative, exciting display of craft and balance.
Zenor says of “You Know”: “This is one of the first songs I wrote for the album, and it’s trying to get at this feeling of when somebody intuits exactly where you’re coming from, no matter how isolated you feel in the moment, without having to explain yourself at all.”
