Cloud Nothings - Final Summer

For a band best recalled as having recorded with famed non-producer Steve Albini and for bringing a jolt of distortion-fuelled riffage into the hazy, anonymised lo-fi new music scape back in the 2010s, that ‘Final Summer’, the eighth full-length from Cloud Nothings, begins with an extended, curiously synth-like intro is likely to take more than a few aback on first listen. It’s a trick, of sorts, the title track eventually making itself known in a more familiar style. Yet - in what becomes a pattern throughout ‘Final Summer’ - Dylan Baldi’s vocals are presented in a somewhat hushed manner, turning what could be a bona fide rock banger (there’s a pep in this chorus, to be sure) into an also-ran. On the numbers that more closely resemble the Cloud Nothings trademark sound - see the melodic ‘Mouse Policy’, or the bright ‘The Golden Halo’ - it’s an ideal fit. But take ‘On The Chain’, for example: a sea of lush, fiery guitar sounds suggests so much, and while Dylan’s delivery is little different - there’s the occasional roar yet, as on ‘I’d Get Along’ - the muted way in which they’re almost hidden makes for a frustrating mismatch.