On Cloud Nothings’ first two albums, Turning On and Cloud Nothings, Dylan Baldi’s band was saddled with the classifier “lo-fi pop,” a term that wasn’t really inaccurate but didn’t quite do justice to the band’s unique sound. It’s true that most of Baldi’s songs were hummable two-and-a-half minute jams coated in a reverby distortion haze or blazed-out, melodic mumblers. Even so, there was a kinetic anger behind the endless progression of catchy bridges and hooks. It was Wavves via the Pixies via No Age. “Lo-fi,” sure, but there was something deeper going on than “pop.”
The band’s latest effort, Attack on Memory, does even more to distance them from that label. It’s darker and heavier than anything they’ve done before, trading noise for even denser distortion and chugging basslines. Cloud Nothings was a mix of shitfaced exuberance and frustration; now, Baldi’s just angry and hopeless. From pseudo-screamo opener “No Future, No Past” onward, the riffs are heavy, the vocals are deep, and the themes are bleak and depressing. “I know my life’s not gonna change,” Baldi yells over and over on “Wasted Days.” “I thought I would be more than this.”
Despite the sludge, Attack on Memory is the band’s cleanest and most professional-sounding record yet. It also sounds much more like a band frequently trying to rock the fuck out, mostly because it is. While Baldi was a one-man band in the studio for his first two records, he is joined here by his touring bandmates, all of whom wrote their own instrumental parts for the album, bringing the band even farther from its former brand of punk-pop. “Wasted Days,” for example, is nine minutes long and features an extended bass solo.
None of which is to say that the album doesn’t sound like Cloud Nothings: the crisp, catchy guitar work is still there, and Baldi is still one of indie rock’s strongest songwriters. On Attack on Memory, he’s added a whole new dimension to Cloud Nothings, keeping his ear for melody and infectious riffs while venturing into ‘80s hair metal and ‘90s emo. For a guy who was just a freshman at Case Western two years ago, it’s a pretty impressive and honest maturation.
Voice’s Choice: “Wasted Days”
