The Shadow I Remember

Since Attack on Memory, Cloud Nothings have more than proven themselves as a formidable rock band. However, theres always been something special about Dylan Baldis pithy, poignant pop songs. While most of the groups albums featured at least one or two of these gems, The Shadow I Remember is the first to focus on this side of Baldis music since Cloud Nothings moved out of his bedroom. Baldi and company also come full circle with the albums creation: they recorded it with Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio, where they made Attack. In their own way, The Shadow I Remembers compact, hooky outbursts are just as potent as the slow-burning epics on Cloud Nothings other albums. Theyre so seasoned that they can shift from bouncy to crushing and back again in a blink on The Spirit Of, or whip through a dramatic buildup, blistering choruses, and a radiant coda in 90 seconds on Its Love. Cloud Nothings are as searching as ever on The Shadow I Remember, and Baldi continues to ask the essential questions that hes confronted bravely at every stage of his career. Am I older now/Or just another age?, he wonders on Oslo, although his yelp is evergreen; on Am I Something, his existential angst is even deeper when he howls Does anybody living out there really need me? Though he doesnt find many answers, its easy to get carried away by the way he and the rest of the band blaze through songs like Sound of Alarm and The Room It Was. Paradoxically, scaling back the scope of the albums songs lets Cloud Nothings try some new things that show how much their music has grown. Ohmmes Macie Stewart sings backup on two of the albums finest and most wistful songs, Nothing Without You and Open Rain, while the synth textures electronic composer Brett Naucke adds to A Longer Moon give the song an impressively cosmic sweep. By revisiting their past, Cloud Nothings find something new in it, as well as something timeless, and The Shadow I Remember is a full-throated, full-hearted triumph. ~ Heather Phares

整理された音像が爽やかなメロディーを際立たせるという収穫を否定しているわけではないと思うが、リモートで作った前作『The Black Hole Understands』からの反動を最大の振り幅で音にするには、9年ぶりにスティーヴ・アルビニと組む必要があったのだろう。オルタナ通過後のインディー・パンクという軸は前作もブレてはいなかったが、スタジオで鳴らす轟音や絶叫、さらにはメタリックなリフと共に本来の激情が復活。そのうえで前作の延長線上で新境地もアピールしている点に聴きどころがある。その最たるものが、OHMMEのメイシー・スチュワート(ヴォーカル)を迎えてサビに4つ打ちのリズムというキャッチーなアレンジを採り入れた"Nothing Without You"。これまでにないポップな打ち出しにバンドの意欲が窺える。
bounce (C)山口智男