Cloud Nothings
The Black Hole Understands


2.5
average

Review

by Ricky Medina USER (6 Reviews)
January 2nd, 2021 | 15 replies


Release Date: 2020 | Tracklist

Review Summary: In the face of harsh times, Cloud Nothings attempts to serve its listeners with an escape from reality.

Living in unprecedented times of a pandemic can evoke emotions of gloom and despair. Given this, one would expect an album fully recorded during quarantine to convey similar emotions. Despite Dylan Baldi’s lyrics at times echoing these same feelings of melancholy, this record is the most melodic the band has released so far.

The Black Hole Understands is made up of mid-tempo tracks that cut the fat, leaving out the occasional musical flairs and spastic freak outs typically expected from the band. Instead, the album relies on its melodies and choruses to carry the weight. Dylan seeks to uplift listeners by injecting moments of optimism like his soft croons of ‘life won’t always be this way’ on “The Sound Of Everyone”. “A Silent Reaction” is another song that comes through with one of the band’s sweetest sounding choruses yet. In the face of harsh times, Cloud Nothings attempts to serve its listeners with an escape from reality. The band flirts with their pop sensibilities but also try to retain the edge of previous releases. This comes at a fault as the band seem hesitant to fully embrace their melodic side as this record aims to be their most accessible. As a result, their effort at writing catchy and memorable material varies in effectiveness.

Even when things become more upbeat, Baldi restrained delivery throughout the album muffles the energy trying to breach from underneath the vocals. These moments expose the flaws of the album. When tracks such as “A Weird Introduction” or “Memory of Regret” miss the mark on sticking onto the listener’s mind, there is much less of a reason to revisit said tracks. As Cloud Nothings refrain from fully indulging in their pop leanings or entertaining their punk edge, the record reveals itself to be a very tame affair when compared to their previous outings.

Full Album Stream - https://youtu.be/Itwu5ZT85-A



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user ratings (32)
3.1
good

Comments:Add a Comment 
ieatbabies795
January 2nd 2021


841 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Choo choo! Review number 2, coming thru!

Unfortunately this album is not widely available on streaming platforms as it is a Bandcamp exclusive but below is a link to the YouTube stream and their bandcamp in case someone here wants to buy it

Bandcamp

https://cloudnothings.bandcamp.com/album/the-black-hole-understands

Full Album Stream

https://youtu.be/Itwu5ZT85-A

ieatbabies795
January 2nd 2021


841 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

I wasn’t sure how to list lyrics in my review, how should I format them? The song titles are in parenthesis

JesperL
Staff Reviewer
January 2nd 2021


5682 Comments


neat rev baby consumer! few pointers 4 u:
- "similar emotions However, despite": insert full stop after emotions
- "However, despite Dylan Baldi’s": the however + despite combo feels a bit redundant, removing 'However' would probs look a bit better
- "of mid tempo tracks": mid-tempo
- "The band flirts with their pop sensibilities but also try to retain the edge of previous releases. As a result, their effort at writing catchy and memorable material varies in effectiveness.": this is v interesting, i'd expand upon this a lil bit to really solidify why this is an 'average' album to you
- "muffling the energy trying to breach through from underneath his vocals.": reads a bit awkwardly, consider rephrasing
- "fully indulging into their" into = in

i think the way you formatted lyrics here works; you could [i ] italicise [ / i] them (w/out spaces) for extra emphasis (also consider italicising album titles). and have a pos! :]

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 2nd 2021


32191 Comments


These madmen released 3 albums last year? Cause they just released and EP like yesterday too lol

ieatbabies795
January 3rd 2021


841 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Thank you Jesper!! I really appreciate the feedback, hope I keep improving

ieatbabies795
January 3rd 2021


841 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

“These madmen released 3 albums last year? Cause they just released and EP like yesterday too lol“



Wow I didn’t know that, I barely found out about this one last week haha.

It’s a bit hard to keep up with since all these new releases of theirs are bandcamp exclusives. This one has some decent tracks but as a whole it’s pretty average

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 3rd 2021


32191 Comments


Yeah I haven't checked any of the latest releases, quantity over quality it seems. Only King Gizzard can pull that off haha

brandontaylor
January 3rd 2021


1228 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

this was a pretty decent album with a DIY feel, they've definitely done a lot better but i think i prefer them with cleaner production (haven't been feeling their new singles at all).

JesperL
Staff Reviewer
January 3rd 2021


5682 Comments


i remember kind of enjoying some of their older albums but i cba checking this bc these album covers deserve sick ethereal dream pop or smth lol

ieatbabies795
January 5th 2021


841 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

I finally made some changes, rephrased some stuff, added a couple more details about why the album is avg. so hope it reads better



Also it doesn’t let me italicize the album title for some reason..

brandontaylor
January 5th 2021


1228 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

yeah this album cover looks like it should be for a real estate or wild nothing album lol

Ecnalzen
January 5th 2021


12167 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

I have come to read about and listen to the thing being discussed



Can you not get the italics to work at all?

italicize = [i]italicize[/ i] but with no space between forward slash and i, in case the first explanation of it wasn't quite clear, and you just put whatever word or phrase you want in italics in place of where I have the word italicize

ieatbabies795
January 5th 2021


841 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Thanks, I got it now I’m just slow, I was putting the wrong slash lol

notagenius
October 8th 2022


1258 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

There are many reasons to say it's ordinary, but once Dylan Baldi sings I can't resist.

notagenius
October 8th 2022


1258 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

dude sounds sweet on here, my heel of Achilles for gods’ sake.



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