Cloud Nothings arrived seemingly fully formed in 2011. The punk rock swagger, post-punk indifference, and songwriting prowess of singer/guitarist/songwriter Dylan Baldi was already in place. His bedroom solo project became an actual rock trio, and after releasing two albums written and performed by Baldi the trio recorded Attack On Memory with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio and officially began the band’s career in early 2012.
With each successive album Baldi and Cloud Nothings honed their songwriting, becoming great writers and a formidable live band. Their punk rock beginnings gave way to a more pop lean with Baldi and the band growing up and maturing. 2017s Life Without Sound saw the band’s most shimmering, pop-leaning release yet with the addition of Chris Brown on guitar. There was even a collaborative album with Wavves in 2015 called No Life for Me.
Bassist TJ Duke left in 2023 so guitarist Brown moved to bass duties leaving Cloud Nothings a trio once again. This leads us to new album Final Summer; a big, bombastic record that captures the fire and fury of early works Attack On Memory and Here And Nowhere Else, while showing this now veteran rock band’s well-crafted and well-earned song craft.
Cloud Nothings have always made short, to-the-point rock albums and Final Summer is no different. At 29 minutes Baldi and co waste no time getting into it. They scrap like the best. Album opener and title track “Final Summer” shimmers and shakes with a driving rhythm, big guitars, and glittering synths. Baldi’s once bratty bark has been replaced with melodic vocals that sit right in the middle of the proceedings. “Daggers of Light” with its fuzzy guitars and bombastic drums hover between pop sheen and noise rock abandon. “Mouse Policy” captures the punk rock drive that gave Cloud Nothings their street cred to begin with.
There are no lulls here. From the chugging squall of “Silence” to the reminiscing pop jangle of “Running Through The Campus” to the bittersweet rock and roll of album closer “Common Mistake” Cloud Nothings waste no moment. No dead air or filler, Final Summer zooms by at a whiplash pace.
After 15 years, Cloud Nothings has evolved into something far more than its one man project beginning. Final Summer is the culmination of that evolution.
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