Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memory

In Attack on Memory, Dylan Baldi (recording as Cloud Nothings) has made his most refreshing — even prescient — work. From blistering yet beautifully trance-inducing opener "No Future/No Past" to twisted sadist anthem "Cut You," this album is diverse in textures and tempos and full of an oddly ecstatic kind of rejection. Post-grunge punk rhythms and vocal deliveries are seamlessly meshed with both crisp and muddy guitar work, raw plodding instrumental breakdowns, and youthful sad-sack lyrics that rail against nostalgic obsessions and bemoan personal shortcomings. Even if, like me, you don't fully buy this guy's woefulness (just listen to how confidently vindictive he sounds), this album is a short, intense, and thoroughly enjoyable (if not entirely consistent) listen. Baldi was likely poised to hammer out this exuberant complaint of an album anyway, but having Steve Albini as a producer (who worked with Nirvana and the Pixies, among many others) may have been just what he needed to work away from the tepidity of earlier efforts and come truly into his own. Be sure to dig Cloud Nothings full band February 24 when they play the Ten Eleven. Judging from this work, it should be enthusiastically angsty

★★★ ½ (out of 5 stars)