Despite only forming in 2009, Ohio three-piece Cloud Nothings have incredibly already released four albums. Their latest is Here and Nowhere Else, a brief garage rock album of eight scratchy, heart-on-your-sleeve rock’n’roll tunes.
This album takes a few listens before the songs really warm to the ears. Luckily its short number of songs means it doesn’t take too much time to give the album a few spins. Now Here In opens proceedings with pounding drums and grungy ‘90s guitars whilst, as is their norm, Dylan Baldi’s vocals are left exposed, raw and flawed. That may sound like a criticism but it’s really not; this brand of rock truly benefits from having an unfiltered style of singing.
Quieter Today ups the aforementioned scratchiness of the vocals and picks up the tempo musically. The chorus becomes catchy after a few listens, surprisingly not hampered by the fact you can’t really make out the lyrics during the entire chorus and much of the whole track. Not that this is at all death-metal type stuff where the average Joe might find the vocalist indecipherable, it’s just that this track is slurred and rough.
Psychic Trauma is a little bit more polished than the opening tracks and the closest thing to a song you’d play around your parents on the disc. The signature “amps to 11” distorted sound is still there, though. Here and Nowhere Else is a really enjoyable album. It’s not a seminal album but one that will consolidate the band’s reputation well.
BY ALEXANDER CROWDEN
Best Track: Now Here In
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In a Word: Raw
