Hello, everyone! It’s time for another individual album review, and one that I was planning to post months ago, this one being for the newest Cloud Nothings album, Final Summer.

Cloud Nothings are a band whose name I’d heard a lot for a while, although up until earlier this year I hadn’t listened to them at all. They’ve been a band for about a decade and a half, and going into this review I decided to somewhat familiarize myself with the rest of their discography—emphasis on ‘somewhat’.

I listened to all of their other albums in preparation for this review at least a little bit, and my favourites so far are probably Attack On Memory and Life Without Sound, although they might require more relistens.

But for now I just want to focus on their new album, Final Summer. I’ve noticed in recent years their music has seemed to be getting more melodic and maybe slightly less heavy, and while it didn’t always click for me, I felt like there was a lot of potential being shown.

And for whatever reason, I had a really good feeling about this album. I don’t know what it was. This might not be a good reason, but I think it might have partially been the fact that this has probably one of my favourite album covers of the year. It’s just a really beautiful shot of a bewitching sunset over a city/town (I’m not sure where the picture was taken) with a forest. It seems like a really simple photo which also could have something to do with the band’s name with the clouds, or maybe it’s just a coincidence, I’m not sure. Either way, despite the simplicity of it, I can’t help but be in awe of this curiously riveting image. Although I’m not sure it’s the image itself; I think it’s mostly just with the context of it being an album cover. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great picture, but something about it really made me excited about this album, and I’m not entirely sure what.

Anyway, I gave this album about five or six listens … and then about another five or six listens, because the more I listened to this, the more it easily stood out as one of the best albums I’ve heard all year! It’s been a slow start for albums in 2024 in my opinion, and I’ve struggled to find as many great albums as I would have liked, and the number of albums that I’ve really fallen deeply in love with has been very small … but we got one here. Because this is absolutely phenomenal! It’s the kind of glorious indie rock album that soars with such muscle and breathtaking splendour that I can pretty much look past all nitpicks I could make. Not that there are a lot of nitpicks I have here, but the elements of this that I think work really well are absolutely amazing!

So, where do I even begin with an album like this? I mean, part of me feels like there’s not really a lot to talk about, because it’s very much an album that needs to be heard to fully understand the experience, and it’s pretty straightforward for the most part. I mean, it seems to be an album about persevering despite life’s challenges, and finding catharsis from your own inner demons. And I wouldn’t say it’s the most layered album lyrically or anything like that … but it captures the emotions it’s aiming for so incredibly well that I don’t really care that it’s not more complex! In fact, I think it kind of helps that it’s not!

So, I may as well start by talking about the lyrics on this album, and I actually really like the lyrics despite a lot of simplicity. And I think it’s because it really gets the point across in most of these songs, and often in a really nice poetic way with some standout rhymes and great phrasing.

I mean, the opening track is a great example. This song, called “Final Summer”, is one of my favourite songs on this album, and considering how much I love the album, that is saying a ton! Not only are the rhymes really strong, but it’s got a really good message to it. There are always things we wish were different in our lives, but why should that stop us from appreciating all that we do have? And I know it’s not the most unique song topic ever, but the way it’s all written feels so magical, like there was no better way to get the message across.

The next track is “Daggers of Light”, which really hits close to home for me, as it seems to be about the sudden shifts in emotions, and it feels like the soundtrack to those days when I can’t figure out what I feel compelled to do. I think the line, ‘I was on the edge of another life’ really sums this up well, which especially hits hard for me at this point in my life when I have to make some big decisions about what I want my future to look like.

“I’d Get Along” is the third track on the album, and there’s not much to it lyrically, but I still really do love this track for reasons I’ll explain later on, and the following “Mouse Policy” is a really interesting track which feels very hard to untangle lyrically. I wonder if it’s about someone depending too much on the narrator, and the narrator is trying to help this person learn to be more independent, while realizing that that in itself involves being there to help the person, as ‘a stop along the road before your tiny work is done.’

“Silence” might be one of the best songs here lyrically. It’s got one of the best opening lines I’ve heard in any song this year, ‘If there are no new ideas, do you have any reason to learn?’ And it seems like this song might be about trying to enjoy life without focusing too much on the fact that things ‘could be better,’ because there is only one reality.

And then there’s “Running Through The Campus”, which shows the narrator realizing that even though it’s great to help other people, sometimes you just have to focus on yourself without worrying about anyone else.

“The Golden Halo” goes along with what feels like a bit of a theme on the album of asking questions to the audience, with the line, ‘If the sun went out today, do you think your life would change?’ And obviously it’s not meant literally, because … well, yeah, if the sun went out, we’d all be dead. But there are so many ways this can be interpreted, and I think that’s the point. Obviously pretty much anything that happens in our lives changes it to some extent, but how much? Well, that depends.

“Thank Me For Playing” seems to be about people who are overly competitive, and the narrator stops trying to compete with this person, instead just trying to live a happy life without worrying about ‘keeping up’ with others. It’s a very simple but effective song lyrically.

The second to last track is “On The Chain”, which kind of feels like a callback to the opening track, as there seems to be a theme of hoping for change, but it doesn’t feel as optimistic as that track—or at least it’s a different kind of optimism. Because here, the emphasis seems to be on the potential for a better future. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to enjoy the present moment, but sometimes it can really help to believe in yourself that you can get to where you want to be in the future, and when I say that can really help, I mean even in the present.

Now, I’ve given the lyrics here a lot of praise, but I will say the closing track doesn’t work for me quite as well. I like the overall message of it, about forgiving yourself for small mistakes and realizing that everyone is flawed. But I wish there had been a different wording picked than ‘just give more than you take.’ I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but while I think this is supposed to be saying ‘just make a positive impact’, it almost feels like it’s implying sacrificing all your own happiness, even though it’s obviously not. In other words, this is a total nitpick by me and I know it, but I still would have preferred this with a different wording used. And thus I wouldn’t quite call it a great song, probably the only song here I wouldn’t call great … although it is still very good; again, I like the overall message of the song, and while the production is some of the weaker production on the album, it’s still got some punchy snares and some great vocal melodies, and that ‘chorus’ is really catchy—I used quotations because I’m not really sure this song has a chorus.

And speaking of which … I’ve barely talked about the sound of this album! And considering how late this review already is and how many other reviews I’ve been working on that are already going to be super late, and the fact that I want to get back to reviewing newer albums soon … well, I’m not going to go into a ton of detail here.

But with that being said, there are so many excellent moments, and I’ve got to talk about at least some of them! And one of my favourite parts of this album has got to be the dramatic first minute of the opening track with those awesome synths building up to that excellent guitar melody! And it’s not even until nearly halfway through the song that the vocals in this song start, but none of that time feels wasted! I mentioned the lyrics earlier, and sonically I’m not sure what a better way to represent this vibe would be!

And there is so much excellent guitar distortion on this album, and the basslines complement it all so well! “Daggers of Light” has such perfect instrumentation to really help the frustration of this song shine through, with that ferocious guitar and the slow-yet-pummeling drums, and that bassline sounds phenomenal in the mix!

And speaking of the bass, how can I not mention that absolutely killer bass in “Thank Me For Playing” which sounds totally locked in with the guitars and really provides some punch to this awesome instrumentation!

And not only are the vocal melodies throughout this album absolutely fantastic, but Dylan Baldi’s vocals are absolutely incredible! He does such a good job of subtly changing his vocal delivery to fit the song while still having a very recognizable voice, and it doesn’t seem too all-over-the-place.

Also, I said I’d talk more about “I’d Get Along” … and it’s a bit of a tricky song to describe why it works so well unless you hear it for yourself, but this song has probably one of the best snare sounds on the entire album, and the grimy guitars feel like they’re in a battle against the vocals, and I actually think it really works considering how the song feels like it’s about being tough and pushing through things.

And before I wrap up the review, I want to talk a little bit more about “Running Through The Campus”—I’ll be honest, one of the biggest reasons why I love this album so much is this song alone! I mean, I’m not sure there’s not a whole lot to it—I’m pretty sure it’s a song about going for a run to clear your head and feel a lot of joy, and forgetting about everything else going on around you, if only for a moment to escape it all. But there’s something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on that really resonated with me in a way I was not expecting at all! And when you also factor in some of the catchiest guitar and vocal melodies and a brilliant song structure which really represents the feeling of going out for a run and feeling all carefree, before it all eventually ends … yeah, this is easily among my favourite songs of 2024!

And yeah, the entire album is absolutely incredible! Again, I wanted to have this review posted months ago, but I just never got around to finishing it until now, despite knowing this was gonna be one of my favourite albums of the year!

It’s only the second album I’ve given a 9.5 so far this year, and we’re already more than halfway through the year … but don’t worry, there are a few specific albums I’m planning to review soon which I’ve listened to enough to feel pretty confident are going to be getting 9.5s as well … but I want to really sink my teeth into those albums a little more before I can say for sure.

Anyway, thanks for reading my review, and feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 9.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Final Summer”, “Daggers of Light”, “I’d Get Along”, “Mouse Policy”, “Silence”, “Running Through The Campus”, “The Golden Halo”, “Thank Me For Playing”, “On The Chain”
Least Favourite Track: “Common Mistake”