Attack on Memory

Cloud Nothings | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 24, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Carpark Records
• ASIN: B006HH5Z8W
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,216 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In the interval since the 2011 release of Cloud Nothings, Baldi toured widely and put a great deal of focus on his live show. After playing the same sets nightly for months on end, Baldi saw the rigidity of his early work, and he wanted to create arrangements that would allow for more improvisation and variability when played on the road. To accomplish this desired malleability, the entire band decamped to Chicago where the album was recorded with Steve Albini. Insetting out to do so, Baldi and co. have created an album that shows vast growth in a still very young band.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth its weight in accolades. Great 50/50 balance of post-hardcore guitar histrionics and dynamic pop hooks. February 6, 2012

By Nicholas Foley

Format:Audio CD

I'll start this review by being honest and this might speak for a few of you: PitchforkMedia led me to this album by bestowing it their "best new music" tag and their description of the songs and the addition of Steve Albini's engineering caught my interest. So I won't make any front about being there from Dylan Baldi's humble beginnings as a lo-fi bedroom artist since this record is poised to be Cloud Nothing's breakthrough and I can already see some fans getting smug about the new audiences this album will draw from its seemingly unanimous critical appraisal.

I started listening with no bias or previous expectations, though I plan on exploring Baldi's back catalog very soon because of my impression of his abilities as a songwriter. Let me make something clear. Attack is frontloaded by two of its most memorable songs, which isn't to necessarily say the rest don't compare. "No Future/No Past" is a haunting opener, capturing my attention from the first measure of the piano chords, developing into a song driven by mantra-like vocal lines and building into the cathartic release of Baldi's screams. It's evident that Albini's mix benefits the sound of this band, giving the special clarity the chimey guitars need from the commanding emotive quality of his voice. It's with this song that my interest is completely piqued. Next is "Wasted Days", nine minutes played with all the conviction of a hardcore band and also containing the album's most angst-ridden lyrical refrains. The bulk of the song is rhythmic interplay between guitar and drums and doesn't get boring for a second which should speak loudly for a band like Cloud Nothings who for the remainder of the album reveal themselves as a band mainly pulling from the strengths of guitar and vocal hooks. I've seen people rag on "Fall In", and while it breaks up the harsher mood of the first fifteen minutes, it also has a nice pop melody framed by the stop-start motions of the band's rhythm section.

As someone into noise-rock and classic indie from the 80s and the 90s this has a lot of appeal for me. Baldi knows when to rein in the guitar squalor just enough to highlight how catchy these songs are without that same catchiness ever being irritating or to the detriment to how much it legitimately rocks. "No Sentiment" is a good display of all these angles of the Cloud Nothings sound, and "Cut You" ends the album on an uplifting note, its heavy drumming underpinning the blissful vocal melody and little guitar lines sprinkled throughout that recall moments from the Pixies "Doolittle". Not all of Attack on Memory is going in my life changing music file, but there's enough energy and memorable songs found on this album to keep me playing it. Recommended.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite CN's album by far January 25, 2012

By A. Edelstein

Format:Audio CD

Cloud Nothing's caught my attention with their lo-fi grunge-pop rock sound on songs like "understand at all" and "hey cool kid" and I had a feeling this band would one day soon make a truly special album. Don't get me wrong, I still thoroughly enjoy their S/T release and the "Turning On" album, but I really, really like where they have gone with "Attack on Memory." It's a meshing of so many sounds I love, and though it's early in the year, I predict it will go down as one of my favorite albums of 2012. Every song is good and I have yet to pick my favorites, although the 9-minute track "wasted days" is truly epic. It makes me wish that one day I have the chance to see these guys live.

So if I was to introduce someone who I thought might dig this band, I'd probably start with this latest album. It's definitely the most accessible (and most well-produced) and I think it might prepare a person to give the earlier records more of a chance, which in their own right, are also very good.

-Andrew

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sonic Growth March 18, 2012

By Tom Birkenstock

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Cloud Nothings's songwriter and at one time only member, Dylan Baldi has made the claim in interviews that his latest album, Attack on Memory, felt like such a departure from his earlier, lo-fi static-pop sound that he considered recording under an entirely new name. Dylan's right that Attack on Memory marks a shift in style for Cloud Nothings, but he's wrong to claim that this is a complete departure from his first two full length releases. A shadow of doubt and remorse hangs over the album, and while Attack on Memory's darker themes leads to a rearrangement in sonic textures, ultimately Dylan's ear for a catchy riff or a snaking guitar line makes it clear that Attack on Memory was written by the same artist who penned the bouncy "Understand at All."

The opening track, "No Future/No Past," attempts to strike a clear demarcation between Attack on Memory and Dylan's earlier four track bedroom recordings. The song, a slow marching dirge, builds from a whisper to a throat searing scream, and it helps form the atmosphere of the rest of the album. But despite this new approach, Dylan can't help but write some surprisingly catchy tunes. Sure, he's traded in much of his nasally delivery for a scream that seems to start and stop in his trachea, but underneath the self-torment lies a talented songwriter. In fact, a couple of the songs, such as "Fall In" and "Stay Useless," could have easily have slid into one of his earlier albums without causing much disruption.

Attack on Memory relies on two elements to truly differentiate itself from Cloud Nothings's first two full lengths: a full band and Steve Albini's production. The centerpiece of the entire album, the nearly nine-minute long "Wasted Days," could never have been pulled off as a bedroom recording. The song's energy depends on multiple guitar dynamics and clear shifts from one movement to the other. This fuller sound is only enhanced by Albini's steel hard production sound. Albini is famous for his hands off approach to producing, allowing the sound of his studio to do all the work for him. Like Bruce Lee, he relies on the "style of no style." And here much of the album feels as if it were recording in an ancient cave, the band surrounded by long forgotten glyphs. And what better environment for Dylan's intonation of easy self-disgust. At times the album recalls Albini's most famous production work, Nirvana's In Utero. And while Dylan doesn't have Cobain's gift for layers of irony and somersaulting wordplay, he takes advantage of Albini's skills to evoke elemental feelings of anger and distrust that can be found in the common 20-year-old American male.