Cloud Nothings return on 19 October with fifth album ‘Last Building Burning’. Released via Wichita, the album was recorded in just eight day and clocks in at just 30 minutes – and that’s with space for the 11-minute ‘Dissolution’!
The aim was to capture the dynamic and energetic sound of Dylan Baldi’s live band on record and this is certainly the case on album opener ‘On an Edge’. The three minutes and 15 seconds is a blast of indie-garage rock with ferocious drumming and Dylan snarling about how you ‘don’t remember my name’ before some hugely delicious hooks finish the short running time. Following this is ‘Leave Him Now’ – a song that is equal parts Hold Steady anthemic rock and roll and early Supergrass melody. This song has the defining statement ‘End it now or never leave at all, you end it now or never be alone’.
‘In Shame”s lyrics talk about not caring about lying and hiding and they’re spat out with real venom, especially in the chorus: ‘They won’t remember my name, I’ll be alone in my shame’ while Breeders-esque bass lines back them up and then the record veers into a more goth-pop sound with ‘Offer an End’. This song has anxious screams of ‘sometimes the truth feels worse’ and leads directly into ‘The Echo of the World’ – a forceful anthem with an explosive climax that sounds somewhat akin to Mewithoutyou having a jam with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead.
And then it’s time for the post-rock tinged mathy ‘Dissolution’, a sprawling 11 minutes that veers from Cursive-style riffs to Deerhunter-esque psychedelia with sludgy noise, buzzing feedback and a healthy dose of shouting in its final 30 seconds. It’s a left turn but fits perfectly before the album returns to short and sharp grunge with ‘So Right So Clean’. The closing ‘Another Way of Life’ is more melodic and has a cool college rock sound as Dylan appears to find closure: ‘I’ve got to sit down, get the story right, I’m not going out tonight’.
With ‘Last Building Burning’, Cloud Nothings are on fire.
