Release Date: Jan. 27
Label: Carpark Records
Duration: 35 minutes
Grade: B+
For any rock or alternative fans looking for a new band to get into, Cloud Nothings might be the one for you. Their much anticipated, newly released album, "Life Without Sound," is finally here and it delivers on a promise of continuing the Cleveland-born band’s alternative rock power. "Life Without Sound" is the fifth album released by this rock band and it features nine tracks
that leave the listener feeling a diverse range of emotion.
Ever since Dylan Baldi founded the band in 2009, Cloud Nothings has continued to produce albums that strike an emotional cord with the listener, and "Life Without Sound" does not change that pattern. Baldi and his band create a tantalizing combination of genres, blending screaming, angry rock sounds with the slow, powerful force of alternative music. Anyone who hears their music can’t help but want more, and "Life Without Sound" is sure to be an album that extends their fan-base past its current limits.
Some tracks from this album are mellow and light, revealing a new Cloud Nothings, while others carry the signature heavy sound of their previous albums. If the airy, minute-long instrumental between piano and guitar that starts the first song, "Up to the Surface," is any gauge, the album is sure to be immersive. However, long-time fans have nothing to fear. Though Cloud Nothings is expanding their sound in their new music, they aren’t entirely leaving the angst-riddled signature sound of their old music behind. The heavy guitar riffs and dark emotions listeners are most used to fill up just as much space on "Life Without Sound" as the softer version of their music does.
Baldi and his band are no strangers to evoking emotion in their listeners, whether it is the loneliness in the lyrics of “Enter Entirely” or the introspective emotions of “Realize My Fate,” you feel the emotion alongside them. The depth of these songs goes beyond the traditional, and Baldi draws on his own personal experiences to write lyrics that can either encourage the listener or make him feel the pain of a loss unknown. In perhaps the most compelling song on the album, “Modern Act,” Baldi reveals a side of himself and his music that manages to sound upbeat while also conveying an aura of fragility in the lyrics, that makes the listeners relate the song to their own lives, something few musicians can do.
Cloud Nothings has been shaping and creating their sound throughout their albums, and their fifth is no exception. They are forming a complete vision of their music, and we get that feel in "Life Without Sound." The songs transition between light and heavy, but all of the lyrics deliver the same impact of emotion, something their fans have grown to value. If anything, "Life Without Sound" has proved that for fans of Cloud Nothings, and all those who discover them, a life without sound would lack something that they provide us; as Cloud Nothings strives for their final sound, we continue to strive with them.