Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings
Carpark: 2011
Cloud Nothings’ indie-pop punk sound is exciting and invigorating. It’s punchy low fi light-hearted fun. Music these days is usually brooding and depressing, always laying on the downsides life has to offer. Cloud Nothings offers a viable alternative in the world of indie music, making upbeat, catchy pop-punk steeped in mid-’90s musical nostalgia. I may not have grown up in the decade, but I know a ’90s sounding record when I hear it.
From the lo-fi production values to the catchy Pavement-cum-Blink 182 melodies, this record just screams ’90s. It does it all in a happy mood too, which helps make this one of the best releases this month. If you like your music dark, epic and depressing, you certainly won’t want to give this a try. However, if you’re a bit of an optimist, this is one of the most fantastic records to happen in your life time.
The album starts with upbeat indie-punk and ends with upbeat indie-punk. Speedy, jarring guitar playing atop high pitched, nasally vocals is the name of the game here. The lyrical themes that I can make out reek of teen angst and rebellion. It complements the music well too. This is a hybrid of pop punk and various forms of indie music, including indie-folk and alternative rock. If you were to mash Blink-182 and Modest Mouse together you’d definitely get the sound of Cloud Nothings.
From the uptempo, lo-fi speed of “Understand At All” to the mid-tempo, Pavement-esque “Should Have”, you get a sense of ’90s indie rock channeled through modern punk sounds. This is indie pop-punk of the highest quality that it can get right now. There are some slow burners that drag down the album a little bit, like the teeth-grindingly disappointing “Forget You All the Time”, which bogs down the album by losing the fast tempos of earlier songs. These kinds of songs decrease the quality of the middle portion of the album.
For what it’s worth, this is actually a really good CD. It’s short, it’s fast, it’s catchy and it rocks harder than anything I’ve heard in a long time. This is gloriously happy punk for anyone wanting to relive the past years of their life. Steeped in nostalgia and catchiness, Cloud Nothings’ debut album is one hell of a good time.
3.5 out of 5
