You may have seen this video in this blog’s about page. If not, there is Cloud Nothings’ latest album “Here and Nowhere Else” which was released in the first few days of April. I feel as if I am a bit late to do any kind of review on this, but seeing as My iPod is on hiatus for a while I might as well update my blog with a few sporadic posts.

I found out about “Here and Nowhere Else” and generally the band itself when I found the album’s review on Pitchfork. It got an 8.7. That score sounded good. It also got positive reviews from Allmusic and Consequence of Sound too. Thought I might as well check it out and see if it lives up to the acclaim.

If you are a particular fan of a rock song with fuzzy guitars, torrential drums, and in general music that sounds like it should be played at a very high volume….. that is constant throughout every song on here. This is probably the album for you.

The vocals partially buried underneath all this noise, so it can be hard to understand just what singer Dylan Baldi is actually saying. Unless you’re a person who gets really deep into lyrics, that’s shouldn’t be much of a problem. Maybe it was intentional. But the melodies are simple, yet memorable and satisfying.

I’ve also seen some people say that they weren’t as impressed by this as they were with the band’s last album “Attack on Memory”. Most of those comments I saw in the comment section of the video above. For sure the chord changes may be simple and there’s no sense of interplay between guitars brought on from the lack of the second guitarist who left before album sessions started. The production may not be up to standard to those who liked Steve Albini’s production on “Attack on Memory” too. Honestly, I’m a fan of both albums and it seems like on “Here” more emphasis is put on the guitars than on the former album while still capturing those relentless drums. Maybe that’s just me.

Whatever, I think the album’s great. Have a listen to it and “Attack on Memory” if you have the time. Both albums are a bit short.

My track picks:

Now Hear In, Just See Fear, I’m Not Part of Me