The Singles Jukebox

Next on the alt-rock heritage trail, Cloud Nothings visit the actual convenience store from Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” video…

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[5.88]

Alfred Soto: Attack on Memory razed every Green Day album since 2001 — the ones that Said Something. The tempo change strikes me as an obvious attempt at variety, a substitute for the perfervid dynamics they commanded two years ago. It’s as if Steve Albini didn’t exist.
[6]

Juana Giaimo: It’s interesting how Dylan Baldi can make such a desperate song like “Psychic Trauma” sound so playful at the same time. Unlike, “I’m Not Part of Me,” the other advance trck from Here and Nowhere Else, it’s harder to digest due to its mess and his screams, but it’s still not dark enough as Attack on Memory — and I’m not sure if that’s something good or not. 
[7]

Megan Harrington: Whatever had Dylan Baldi all worked up throughout Attack on Memory doesn’t sound like it’s bothering him much anymore. Instead, “Psychic Trauma” is an exercise in trying to care, trying to feel anything. It comes complete with a spat “troo” and a compulsory freak-out to end the song. To hedge his bets, Baldi has also packed a hook in his knapsack and it’s enough to get him out of this scrape with his muse. 
[7]

Brad Shoup: Jayson Gerycz, you crazy for this one. I just wanna hear him make mischief on the kit, instead of this sub-Arctic garage strangulation. You gotta own that rasp, man; can’t bury that shit unless you’re willing to let your drummer go apeshit for the full three.
[5]

Patrick St. Michel: Probably gets a pit going, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do listening to this on headphones.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: “Hey Cool Kid” had pose enough, but I’ve heard little from Cloud Nothings to persuade me they possessed anything more than stylish trappings for songs as stolid as bran. I thought the same of Japandroids once too, and then they released “The House That Heaven Built.” If indie rock’s ’90s throwbacks really want to revive the 120 Minutes era, it’s nice they’ve remembered Archers of Loaf had “Web in Front,” Dinosaur Jr had “Start Choppin’,” and Sonic Youth had “100%.” And “Psychic Trauma” is a real winner of a single in that mold: guitars sweet and muddied at the same time and a mid-song tempo change that ushers in a real throat-blasting freak-out of the kind guitar bands often gesture toward but so rarely realize.
[8]

Anthony Easton: I never quite understood the designation of indie-rock, for a band this meat and potato. They are competent at what they are doing, but with the exception of a little Cookie Monster growl, there is nothing you wouldn’t hear at a dozen other Midwest rec-room pounders.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: The fits and flatness of the soul-deadened, rendered as a pristinely retro sudden tempo change. Better as an idea than something to listen to, but so is trauma.
[5]