Cloud Nothings spike a corrosive slurry with sugar, putting bounce and glee into blistering, feedback-addled tone. “Running Through the Campus at Night” lopes through rainbow arcs of feedback, little explosions of percussion going off continually, but its figurative feet hardly touch the ground. It’s a high and a rush, like certain six-milers when everything falls into place, and though it’ll blow you back with volume, you’ll have a smile on your face when it does.
This is Cloud Nothings’ eighth full-length, coming a decade and a half after its first lo-fi bangers. It’s certainly true that the band has navigated several cycles of the rock-is-dead-no-it-isn’t narrative during that period. When Baldi’s music first hit our inboxes, the big comparison was Wavves (he was better), now he swims in the same pool as Wednesday and Ratboys. Over time, his band has offered fuzz pop and noise in various proportions. Early efforts like Turning On and the S-Tfizzed with lo-fi melodic energy, while 2012’s Attack on Memory (recorded with the late, great Steve Albini) buzzed in darker, more dissonant aggression. More recently, Baldi has flirted with free jazz and improvisation, playing a wild sax alongside long-time drummer Jason Gerycz in the Baldi Gerycz Duo.
This journey, though, has led Baldi — alongside Gerycz and bassist Chris Brown — to a place not too far from where they began, where fuzz-crusted romance blares and blusters without obscuring its fetching, hooky charms. Final Summer nails that very Western Mass aesthetic (even though Baldi is from Cleveland). Think Ovlov, California X, most of the Exploding in Sound roster and, of course, Dinosaur. These are headbangers with a shit-eating grin, and there are no loose threads, not one.
The title track, for instance, looms into view on tense staccato electric picking over a swelling wash of synth sound. It’s edgeless, tempo-less extending from a center rather than moving forward…until it isn’t. About a minute into the cut, a drum beat kicks in, a guitar riff circles, little space noise sparkle of synth drift in, and the chorus begins. It’s like Tangerine Dream transforming itself into Sugar, both parts pure pleasure, wildly different and somehow complementary.
Though Final Summer doesn’t rage as hard as Attack on Memory, in general, it’s got its bludgeoning intervals, most notably sludgy “I’d Get Along.” “If something would happen, if something would happen with me, I’d get along,” caterwauls Baldi over a frenetic cacophony of drums and guitars. His voice frays as he projects over the mayhem. The singing goes hoarse and metal-voiced in the long finishes, as Gerycz explodes in frantic bursts. It’s loud and corroded but also kind of a bop. That’s a trick that Cloud Nothings have been pulling since the late aughts, but there’s no sign that they’re tired of it. Final Summer is as sharp and exuberant and fierce as anything this band has ever done.
Album premiere: Cloud Nothings, Life Without Sound
Dylan Baldi started writing honest and cathartic indie rock songs as Cloud Nothings in 2008. Since then his recording project has evolved from a basement in Cleveland into an internationally popular and critically-acclaimed band. On Baldi's fifth album, Life Without Sound, the songwriting is more reflective—meant to inspire, he explains—and collaborative, having been workshopped with bandmates for more than a year before reaching producer John Goodmanson (Sleater Kinney, Death Cab for Cutie). The nuanced and polished collection adds "further evidence of the brains behind Cloud Nothings’ brash exterior," says DIY, and sees release on longtime home Carpark Records (US) / Wichita (UK).
2024
Sono passati dodici anni da quando – incuriosito dalla produzione di Steve Albini – ho conosciuto i Cloud Nothings di Dylan Baldi. Attack on memory era il loro secondo disco, nel frattempo ne sono arrivati altri cinque, l’ultimo di nuovo con Albini in regia, e quest’anno è uscito l’ottavo, Final Summer.
Baldi è un appassionato di free jazz e musica ambient ma quello che si ascolta in Final…
Indie rock industrial complex makes most of their bands sound the same. I agree, this might be my subjective view on things, though let us listen to the latest works by the groups I mentioned in here. Yes, they sort of blend into one another, while their early platters give us a glimpse into a more interesting scene. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that might be a plan for all of them, though something occurs to the bands, such as Cloud Nothings. The latter continue to do many interesting things as one can notice, but a certain standardization occurs to many of these outfits, including Cloud Nothings, though they have weathered that well. However, an important question remains – how much of what happens to these musicians is self-inflicted?
