Cloud Nothings

Last Fall, Dylan Baldi-- the young, bespectacled face and brains behind Cleveland power-pop outfit Cloud Nothings-- was gearing up for two simultaneous releases: a delicious new 7" single and a wide-release compilation that wrangled together nearly every other hook he had burned to cassette, vinyl, or CD-R in the year before. While both shared remarkably strong songwriting, said single was recorded without much of the fuzz and distortion that enveloped his work up until that point. The difference was huge. Baldi's home-recorded hooks had never been hard to hear, but out in the open, free of that lo-fi asterisk, they thrived. Breaks were crisp, turnarounds hit like boomerangs, and every sweet, tightly coiled melody could be savored in full. In the lead-up to this, his first full-length in wide-release, Baldi hinted that he'd continue to clarify his recordings. He stuck to his guns. The result is another fantastic step forward, though not without some growing pains. In the transition from basement to studio, one component has yet to come into full focus: Baldi's voice. Myspace page -