Cloud Nothings - Live at Grog Shop (Vinyl LP)

I’ll be straight with you, I don’t really have time to review this record. In fact I’m not even supposed to be writing a record review at all, I’m supposed to be working on this week’s newsletter, but we’re giving this a spin while I do and I felt compelled to say a thing or two. Thankfully I can type faster than the wind and nobody will be any the wiser by the time I’m done with it.

Cloud Nothings peddle a treble-heavy, lively guitar pop sound which is very, very heavily influenced by the post-grunge power-popsters of the mid-to-late 1990s, and indeed the big G-meisters themselves, Nirvana, although they also remind me of worthy underlings like Stony Sleep or Urusei Yatsura. They’re really damn good at it as well, and on this LP nine of their songs get a kick up the arse for some tight and lively sped-up versions of your favourite ‘Nothings tracks. It’s making me feel like I’m 15 again.

A really enthusiastic kraut-noise jam at the end of ‘Wasted Days’ takes up half of the first side and is worth the bargain price on its own, with its frantic climax recalling ...Trail Of Dead in their heyday. It’s really well recorded, and there aren’t many of them so if you don’t buy it now you probably won’t see it again. Workmanlike power pop like your dad used to make.