Cloud Nothings- Here and Nowhere Else: 3.5 / 5

Indie-rock band Cloud Nothings released their fourth album, Here and Nowhere Else, on April 1. The album is full of gritty, fast-paced punk rock that abrasively drives you to headbang along. Each track is filled with machine-gun drum fills that will rock your face off. The drumming is very spirited, and is what really fuels the velocity of the album. The guitars are noisy, overlapping, and distoreted, playing crunching chords of raw dissonance. The gravelly, screaming vocals add a punk feel, with youthful exasperation forcing dry emotion into the air. With no slower breaks, you may feel a bit exhausted after listening all the way through. It’s easy to get lost in the jungle of noise if you don’t pay attention. At some points, it gets a bit redundant, with no real melodic or dynamic changes, but it’s so fun and fast-paced you probably won’t even mind. Cloud Nothings have crafted an album that may lack true greatness, but make up for it in pure, unadultered punk rock. They’ve shown a clear maturation in their sound that will most likely have the band continuing on their road to roaring, anthemic rock noise. Key Tracks: Quieter Today, Psychic Trauma, I’m Not Part of Me RIYL: Japandroids, Real Estate, Yuck