The Shadow I Remember

Album review

Back to the 90s, dirty and torn T-shirts, crumpled lumberjack shirts and worn-out skateboards that are down to their last ball bearing... For a decade, the Cloud Nothings have been cultivating an indie rock that just refuses to die, with raging and rough guitars, racing drums and vocals infused with anguish and nonchalant anger.  They have cultivated a growing notoriety, especially via Bandcamp, and then their label, Carpark. Led by Dylan Baldi, the lo-fi band from Cleveland, Ohio, returns with The Shadow I Remember, an album produced by a giant of the genre, Steve Albini, a fixture of the rock scene who has worked with thousands of bands and on some masterpieces such as In Utero by Nirvana, Pod by the Breeders, the Pixies' Surfer Rosa and Rid of Me by PJ Harvey.  For Cloud Nothings, Albini had already produced Attack on Memory, the 2012 album that took the band to the next level. A few more works and almost a decade later, the producer emeritus is back for a second adventure. On The Shadow I Remember we find Baldi's passion, as he nervously surfs a wave of saturated guitars. Oslo, Nothing Without You, The Spirit Of, Only Light ... the melancholic, adolescent and endearing melodies follow one after another. They will remind some of the sensation of listening or re-listening to Cloud Nothings' big brothers, the veterans of Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth or Sebadoh... The first single, Am I Something, is also reminiscent of Hole or the Breeders, in the way that Baldi endlessly repeats “am I something good...”. The Shadow I Remember ends beautifully, with a brilliantly noisy The Room It Was that would probably have won Thurston Moore's approval... Like skating, like grunge, this material is all still there, and it's not giving up yet. © Yan Céh/Qobuz