Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

Cloud Nothings
Here and Nowhere Else
1 April 2014
Carpark

4 stars out of 5

 

After having listened to “Psychic Trauma,” the third track on Here and Nowhere Else, the third studio LP by Cloud Nothings, multiple times, I am firmly convinced that their drummer, Jayson Gerycz, is fucking insane. He has no business drumming that ferociously. Nor does any other non-cyborg human being. As a whole, the record is a few notches more intense than their previous outing, the much-acclaimed Attack on Memory. The somewhat sloppy and unhinged post-hardcore of that record is still sloppy and unhinged on Here and Nowhere Else, but somehow they seem to be tighter in their sloppiness now, managing to refine it and perfect it, if that makes any sense at all.

Tracks like “Quieter Today” and “No Thoughts” are great little emo (in the original sense of the word) ditties that will have the mosh pits frothing over with bloody noses and ecstatic shouts of approval. “Just See Fear” and “I’m Not Part of Me” see the band pushing farther into pop vocal melody territory than ever before, with fantastic results. And then there’s the incredible beast of a song that is “Pattern Walks.” If you, gentle reader, will permit me to reconstruct this song for you out of its Goo equivalents, it’s got a “Mildred Pierce” verse, a free-wheeling “Tunic (Song for Karen)” breakdown, and a “Titanium Exposé” return to the beat. And then, after all of that, it finds an almost gospel-esque ecstasy in the repeated vocal refrain which wraps things up.

Here and Nowhere Else hides many subtle hints of beauty that it reveals more and more with each subsequent listen. If it doesn’t take hold of you right away, have patience, give it some time. You will hear the good word, and you will be converted.

reviewed by Richard Krueger