Grade: 83% (B)
The opening track off of Cloud Nothing's self-titled debut is almost annoying in a way. "Understand At All" starts with a quick witted guitar riff shortly followed by the rest of the band. Then the singing starts, and the nasally high voice gets going and you feel like sneezing to get all of this out of your head. Even so, there is still something appealing about the song in the end. It is swift and smooth all while being unmistakably catchy at the same time. By the third time you listen, you'll even be singing along to the adolescent chorus.
By the time the first track flows into the second, you don't even realize it. However, once the new verses jump in, you get the direction that the record is headed in; Eleven songs that are short, sweet, and to the point. That point generally being surrounded by teenage angst and emotions. Even with all of this figured out, the band still surprises you at points. Take the little off-shoot at the end of the second track for example. It comes out of no where and gives you a little smack on the face for being so ridiculously gullible to believe they would end the song without it.
While it holds the elements of your typical startup indie rock band's self-titled debut, Cloud Nothings has a lot of endearing aspects to it. Even though the lyrics are clearly boyish, they are still shaped in a way that is atypical of teenage ideals. Their lyrics are someway in between direct and shady, taking the alternate route around that dilemma which sometimes faces song writers. They are also intelligently formulated. They give off double meanings, and you can truly get a sense of the heartache behind some of the lines. On "Forget You All the Time," Dylan Baldi says exactly that when he sings, "i'm alright, i just forget you all the time." While that seems straightforward enough, when he delivers it with the change in guitar patterns, something else is clearly there to be pondered. Does he truly forget her, or is he telling himself that he does? Just the little hesitation in his voice makes you consider this and he skillfully does this throughout the record.
The album seems to be chalk-full of examples of the narrator falsely convincing himself of things he knows deep down are not true. The song titles are a dead give away of this. Songs like "Not Important," "Nothing's Wrong," and "You're Not That Good at Anything" are self-explanatory in this respect. These two-minute plus songs are carefully padded by the less than two minute thumpers "Heartbeat" and "Rock."
While the lyrics and song length are the first thing that jump out, hidden beneath all of that is also some impressive guitar work and song structure. The quick pauses help highlight the more important lyrical moments and the way certain songs seemingly end quickly, only with their drum beat to be picked up seconds later by the next is an intriguing take on album flow.
Even though there isn't that much to praise song to song, there is one point that I find most admirable from this album. The fact that the band is able to fit 11 distinct songs into 28 minutes and leave you with a lasting impression about the overall mood behind the album and humming some cunning hooks is, in the words of Darth Vader, most impressive. That being said, if they can step up some of the spotty parts of their arrangements and mature a little with their lyrics, this could definitely be a band to watch out for in the future. And with a new, seemingly different, album on the way, they could be successful with their second album, much like Girls did with their follow-up.
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