Album Reviews

As soon as Dylan Baldi and the rest of Cloud Nothings let loose in opening track ‘On An Edge’, you know that ‘Last Building Burning’ will be an entirely different beast than last year’s ‘Life Without Sound’. Whereas that album came with some of Cloud Nothings’ brightest melodies to date, the band’s new album is a return to their earlier albums where they combine noisy freakouts with pop-punk melodies. Hell, they even brought back the black-and-white photography of earlier album covers.

While the 11-minute long ‘Dissolution’ is a tour de force, it’s actually the shorter, sharper songs on here that provide the album’s highlights. ‘Leave Him Now’ is an urgent plea directed at a friend to get out of a toxic relationship while also packing one of the album’s best melodic hooks. ‘In Shame’ finds Baldi frantically screaming the line ‘They won’t remember my name/I’ll be alone in my shame!’ over and over over an extremely sturdy riff and the kind of propulsive drums that we have come to love from Cloud Nothings. And calling ‘So Right So Clean’ brooding and slow-burning doesn’t entirely work, but it comes pretty close.

Yes, some of the album may feel like a slight retread. But that’s okay. ‘Last Building Burning’ is still plenty ferocious, experimental, wonderfully melodic and so full of energy that you won’t stop listening anytime soon.

Track listing:

1. On An Edge
2. Leave Him Now
3. In Shame
4. Offer An End
5. The Echo Of The World
6. Dissolution
7. So Right So Clean
8. Another Way Of Life