Review: Cloud Nothings - s/t

Artist: Cloud Nothings
Title: s/t
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Wichita
Genre: Garage/pop-punk/powerpop
Rating: 86 / 100

Ok, this is kinda strange, I was really convinced I already reviewed this album, apparently, I never did, which is a pity, because I really, really liked this new Cloud Nothings release. Some may have noticed Cloud Nothings before they released this album, Dylan Baldi has been active for some time, recording lo-fi rock songs in his basement/garage/whatever, but not really releasing anything. In 2010 he eventually grabbed it all together and released it as Turning On, which was my introduction into Baldi's amazing skills of creating powerful, catchy music.

In early 2011 Wichita released his first real, self-titled album, showing a far better produced, but again really catchy album, to be fair, it's even the catchiest, most easily enjoyable album I have heard this year. One could have been expecting this from miles way, but yes indeed: Baldi's music is nothing new, nothing original, nor progressive or anything like that, it's just very straightforward cheerful, poppy garage punk. It's actually still what Dylan has been doing for quite a while, only differing in line-up (full band instead of solo) and production (studio instead of fuzzy 8-track), fortunately Baldi kept what made Turning On so awes0me: youthfullness.

Last week I remember writing something about Jay Reatard (R.I.P), in my humble opinion Dylan Baldi has kind of the same talent Jimmy once had; being able to create a huge amount of melodic, catchy, uptempo tunes, without ever getting boring, or even containing just one disappointing song. Still, there's a fairly big difference between Cloud Nothings and Jay's solo work, on Jay Reatard albums, one will regularly find quite dark sounding songs, like Faking It, or especially Oh, It's Such a Shame (gotta love that one). Cloud Nothings on the other hand is extremely cheerful, almost happy, one of the characteristics of Cloud Nothing's music that really add to this cheerfulness are Dylan's vocals. Being fairly high-pitched, they sound a bit childish to me, which fits perfectly to the music by the way, please don't get me wrong. It is what makes this album so youthful, and as a result, so damn enjoyable.

I know it's a bit late (multiple months after the release date), but if you love catchy Jay Reatard'ish garage and still haven't checked out Cloud Nothings, or just heard Turning On, but disliked the lo-fi sound, please check this out, it would be a kind of sadomasochism not to look for it.

Please spread the joy (omg, subtle Vivian Girls reference),

Selwin.