The Spectacular Fantastic Returns with New Album ‘Fantasy Clouds’

Cincinnati musician Mike Detmer has returned with the release of Fantasy Clouds, the new album by his band, The Spectacular Fantastic.

This album carries the signature dreamy rock sound the band has become known for over the past few decades. Between rock lullaby intro track “Greed” and the flowy, ’70s-inspired “Vacant” and “Don’t Worry,” it’s as if spring blooms have blossomed into a thistle.

Detmer’s voice sounds as if Bob Dylan covered a Fleetwood Mac song with a determined voice backed by a twangy guitar and hand-clapping beats. “When You Left Me” couples a folk-rock beat with sad but hopeful lyrics. The track that follows, “Consequences,” opens with a guitar riff that’s as defiant as the lyrics: “What I do is none of your business/I don’t care what you said.”

Detmer is accompanied by new members Jonathan Williams, William Ryan Fletcher and Daniel Peterson to create a nostalgically unique album that is sure to get stuck in your head. Growing up in Southeastern Indiana, the gravel roads and the tall grass must have served as some sort of inspiration to Detmer.

Emerging with the fresh group for the first time on Feb. 22 at the Liberty Theater in Detmer’s hometown of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, nearly 200 people gathered to experience the new era of The Spectacular Fantastic. “The release party at the Liberty Theater was awesome!” Detmer said in an email to CityBeat.

Previous albums include The Spectacular Fantastic (2001), New Equations for the Simple Mind (2003), Vortex of Vacancy (2004), Goes Underground (2005), Outer Space is Nothing but a Lie (2007), Avalanche Lane (2009) and Circling the Sun (2016). Fantasy Clouds marks the first album released in almost a decade.

To accompany the new lineup and album, the band will be playing a show on March 22 at the Lost Bridge Beverage Company in North Bend.

For more information and to listen to the album, visit spectacularfantastic.net.

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This article appears in Feb 19 – Mar 4, 2025.