Cloud Eleven are a band led by L.A.-based pop music savant Rick Gallego, who played all of the instruments on all three of his albums (except for drums, which were played by Greg Schroeder and Nelson Bragg, respectively). Rick's been a fixture on L.A.'s pop-friendly music scene for quite a while now, and has been quietly building up a solid reputation as a careful craftsman of finely-tuned sounds while woodshedding in his home studio, laying down the tracks for his stellar debut. Let's call it a "retro-futuristic" look at the new millennium from a time-capsule module of the Sixties. Musically, Cloud Eleven blend crunchy/fuzzy guitar-driven melodies -- think the best of Jason Falkner, Matthew Sweet -- and soft rock-inspired soundscapes, often employing subtle touches that bring to mind Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, early Bee Gees, obscure soft-rock acts like The Wallace Collection, Montage, and the slightly-less-obscure Left Banke. If you think about it, we're taking it two clouds higher than Cloud Nine, a state of nirvana for some. For pure pop fiends, fans & everyone else, welcome to the next level.