New Music Review: Cloud Nothings-Attack On Memory

Cloud Nothings-Attack On Memory

Carpark Records

Grade: 9.25 (A)

Available At: Amazon MP3 & CD, emusic, Soundcloud

"I need to time to start moving, I need time to stay useless." ~ Stay Useless

Cleveland based lo-fi/noise rock band Cloud Nothings have really jumped light years ahead of previous material with their latest album titled "Attack On Memory". Every song brims with raw and visceral energy that makes you want to keep listening over and over. What comes to mind first is Nirvana's "In Utero" which had the exact same vibe and the figure that ties these two releases together is Steve Albini who was the engineer and produced both albums. But not all praise should go to Albini as band leader Dylan Baldi's songwriting has a lot to do with everything coming together and sounding very fiery.

Baldi deals in a lot of self loathing and dead end scenarios. The opener "No Future No Past" sets the stage as it slowly builds on a pulse that becomes primitive with Baldi driving home the point that there is No Future and No Past...just now. The nine minute follow up "Wasted Days" is a full on assault of guitars and interchanging rhythms that nearly makes you want to bounce up and down, even as Baldi begins screaming in the second half of the song, it just adds to the fury. "Getting tired/Of living till I die" is the crescent to his frustration and you feel it in the malevolent vibe.

If the first two songs may feel a bit inaccessible to listeners on the first couple spins, the last six songs have a more fluent vibe. Starting with the catchy "Fall In" until the closer "Cut You", the band plays off each other like the only rock band that matters on the planet. The theme of self loathing stays the same, but all six of these songs have hooks, melodies, you name it...without losing any of the energy. "Stay Useless" is prime noise rock with a bittersweet chorus, "Separation" is a knockout instrumental which will have you nodding your head in appreciation and "Our Plans" is the only place where the opening guitars have a sunny disposition but just become clouded by furious pacing with a chorus that would make all of Gen-X give a thumbs up to memories from their favorite 90's loathing anthem.

The big fun, and why I'm really enjoying "Attack On Memory", lies in the fact that these songs have a rush even as you know the material is for the bleak and hopeless at heart. You can relate to that young pent up frustration whether you're in your early twenties or reaching the stranglehold of middle age. Like "In Utero", "Attack On Memory" dives head first without blinking into the abysmal chaos that everyday life can create. And sometimes, in my book, that's just called good rock n roll.

JHO Picks: Stay Useless, Cut You, Separation, Wasted Days

Source: http://www.jhostation.com/2012/01/new-music-review-cloud-nothings-attack.html

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