Cloud Nothings

AlbumJan 25 / 201111 songs, 28m 7s
Indie Rock Power Pop
Popular

It’s been a crazy year for Cloud Nothings since they burst onto the music scene last winter. At the time main man Dylan Baldi was eighteen, living at home, and making lo-fi indie rock on a crappy computer in his parent’s suburban basement outside Cleveland. Since then, Cloud Nothings has released an EP and a handful of singles, and the band has put a few North American tours under its belt. With all the internet notoriety and their recent signing with Carpark, Cloud Nothings are now able to record somewhere besides the basement. For a producer, Dylan chose Baltimore’s Chester Gwazda, known for his work with Dan Deacon and Future Islands. Recorded this past August in a warehouse studio in Baltimore’s famed Copycat Building (home to the original Wham City and many of the city’s best musicians and artists), the self-titled Cloud Nothings album shines through with a crispness and boldness that Dylan has always envisioned. The songs now sound as they do live: full of energy, precision, and catchy bits. Dylan plays all the instruments on the album, but this time without the lo-fi scuzz. The excitement and emotion are practically jumping off the grooves.

7.9 / 10

Like Wavves, this basement lo-fi hero continues to clean up nicely, offering deceptively dense and increasingly clearer power-pop.

A-

Somebody needs to sit Dylan Baldi down and teach him the value of conserving his hooks. The Cleveland teenager slashes though catchy melodies like broken guitar-strings on his full-length debut as Cloud Nothings, as if mad dashes of melodicism grew on trees. Surely an older, thriftier songwriter would have tried to…

6.6 / 10

A little more than a year ago, Cloud Nothings front man Dylan Baldi was cranking out a steady stream of effortless power…

“I get old so fast,” Dylan Baldi sings at one point on Cloud Nothings.

Breezes in like a welcome breath of fresh air...Cloud Nothings’ self-titled debut breezes in like a welcome breath of fresh air, just weeks after Britain’s answer to Lady Gaga and My Bloody Valentine’s musical cousin were labelled as 2011’s musical compass.

6 / 10

Essentially the brainchild of Cleveland teenager Dylan Baldi, and arriving soon after last autumn’s ‘Turning On’ (a compilation of his early DIY singles), this ‘proper’ debut album was writt

6 / 10

Cloud Nothings' fizzy, punky pop doesn't outstay its welcome, says <strong>Michael Hann</strong>

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