After Feel Good Ghosts, rumors circulated that it would be the last Cloud Cult album, but there were good intentions behind Minowa’s hiatus: his wife was giving birth to a baby boy. With newfound positivity as a catalyst, Light Chasers is the first Cloud Cult release in a long time that doesn’t feel exhaustingly heavy. For the band’s first concept album, rather than mourning, Minowa focuses on space travel and uses the theme as a metaphor for self-discovery. It’s a little like listening in on a therapy session with Buzz Aldrin while swooping chamber pop is broadcast over the loudspeakers. The 16 songs sequentially chronicle an astronaut’s journey from liftoff to landing, and Minowa seems as on top of his game as ever as he deals out uplifting lines like “All our anxieties are in a box I mailed to Pluto” over imaginative soundscapes. – Jason Lymangrover