Up Like a Weather Balloon by Flip Top Head

Visualizing time as a gradual, graceful downward slope, Flip Top Head’s new EP Up Like a Weather Balloon faces tough inevitabilities with a gentle smile and a playful eye roll. Continuing the impressive trend of British post rock excellence, this album’s jazz sensibilities provide ample fodder for its organic dynamic swells, with moody drums continually teasing a massive payoff before dropping us back into a stew of twinkly guitars and melancholic horns. Virtuosic vocals pierce through these misty valleys, conveying cavernously dark narratives with a wit and charm that immediately disarms, discussing faithless priests and helpless aging without slipping off the slippery slope of despair. Finally, the band delivers on its implicit promise, sending wailing guitars and desperate vocals on a frantic race to the emotional stratosphere, releasing our choked-back tears at the tragic stories delivered in jest only moments before. Simultaneously acknowledging the tragedy of time and normalizing its effects through warm humor, Flip Top Head provides the formula for healthy coping as we face the future.