Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound (Album Review)
Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Written by Jacob Brookman
Photo: Jesse Lirola
In a 2015 interview, Cloud Nothings frontman Dylan Baldi described the process of bringing a new song to the rehearsal space. “To be honest, we don’t even talk, like when we’re making stuff,” he said. "I’ll just be like, ‘I have this thing”, and I’ll play something and they’ll be like ‘That’s cool’ and, like, play something along with it, and there’ll be a song, you know - right there.”
The Ohio-based band’s fourth studio album sounds like it was composed this way, which makes sense given the critical success of previous releases, in particular 2014's 'Here and Nowhere Else'. However this time round, such a hands-off approach to workshopping songs results in relative tedium. Melodies come and go anonymously, while the arrangements - though intuitive - fail to illuminate hidden nuances. The third listen is a very similar experience to the first.
We open with with the quizzical piano and guitar melodies that swing us into Up To The Surface, a grungy pop-rocker which gathers energy around fuzzy guitar refrains, a moshable chorus and Baldi’s angular, angsty vocals. It's a sound that essentially continues without pause for the rest of the album.
There’s some nice work within it, though. Enter Entirely is a track with some well realised melodic manoeuvres and a chorus with a memorable scherzo flourish, while Modern Act is a likeable tune that appears to muse on the challenges of professional touring: “I want a life, that's all I need lately/I am alive but all alone.”
The album closer, Realize My Fate, is a serious and powerful free rocker with an atonal noisecore finale. Similar in intent to Only in Dreams by Weezer, the terse lyrics speak of Baldi’s spiritual curiosity: “I believe in something bigger/But what I can’t articulate/I find it hard to realize my fate.” The musical anarchy at the end is the best moment on the album, and will undoubtedly make a thrilling live spectacle.
One spins a roulette wheel when adopting a communitarian approach to band-leading. Obviously, trust and respect are vital in all creative relationships, especially ones that exist within the close quarters of touring. But while the plug-in-and play aesthetic is central to the appeal of much indie and garage rock, the lack of fine tuning on ‘Life Without Sound’ renders it a pretty boring listen, and not one that can be propped up by the indie-music-as-movement vibe that was present 20 years ago. It's just too easy to listen to something else these days.
Cloud Nothings Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu March 16 2017 - BRISTOL Thekla
Fri March 17 2017 - GLASGOW Stereo
Sat March 18 2017 - MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
Sun March 19 2017 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Tue March 21 2017 - LONDON KOKO
Wed March 22 2017 - BIRMINGHAM Hare And Hounds
Thu March 23 2017 - BRIGHTON Haunt
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