I’m not telling you all I’m going through
I feel fine!
There’s not many bands that blew me away just as much as Cloud Nothings did with their last album „Attack on Memory“ in 2012. It was a perfect mix of melodies, fuzz, feedback and anger. Finally a guitar album again! And don’t forget the perfect Steve Albini production! Finally something for me again, something not many took notice of, but an album I kept telling people about. I kept playing this album to friends, when they were over. I kept nagging the people I know at the label month in, month out about their next record. And finally, it is here.
Cloud Nothings
First of all I was a little disappointed that Albini didn’t produce this one. Well, apparently he started, but then the band opted for a change instead. I wasn’t sure, if it was a good idea, but when I heard the first single, „I’m not Part of Me“, I knew it would all be alright. This sizzling smasher starts with the same intensity, with the same distorted guitars like all the songs on Attack on Memory. The driving drums welcome you back and bloody hell, I realised how I was loathing new material from this band.
I can’t believe that what you’re telling me is true
My mind is always wasted listening to you
Dylan Baldi has perfected the art of writing pop songs that only sound like pop songs, if you listen more closely on this record. While Attack on Memory did the same thing essentially with simple methods (A-B parts, quiet and loud transitions), Here and Nowhere Else is more complex. There’s sudden rhythm changes (Now Here In) and tracks where one chorus is not enough (I’m not Part of Me). This is a band record. Not a record where Baldi added other musicians to play his songs. Jason Gerycz is so hugely influential with is drumming, it’s bordering on absurd. Sonically this is as perfect as a pop record can sound like in punk clothes. It sucks the listener in with all its brutal harmonies, its pace, its noise and the beauty at its core. To put it in more abstract terms, Here and Nowhere Else is like biting into a grapefruit only to find it filled with sweet orange juice.
Look inside, a neither perfect time
there’s always something that will make her go
In a perfect world, this album would be playing on all the good radio stations. The band would be playing to thousands of nerdy kids pumping their fists while dancing through dusty fields at the festivals this summer. People should be listening to this record, when their summer fling breaks up with them, they should make out to this music. This album should be the soundtrack to a hot summer where you get drunk in a field with your friends for the first time. The soundtrack to falling in love for the first time. The soundtrack to the sun setting over the city you live in. It’s a really angry record. It’s a really dissonant record. But it’s also damn catchy. I can’t keep my ears from wanting more and I honestly hope more people will listen to this record feeling the same. I already know that this are some of the best 30 minutes of music to be released this year. It’s so perfect in its imperfection! If we’d rate albums on this website it would be a 12 out of 10 for me. Listen to it, love it and tell your friends about it. Dylan Baldi is a genius! Period!
