Cloud Nothings – Final Summer - Blue Vinyl (/250)

Pure Noise (2024)

Would you believe that this is the seventh Cloud Nothings full length album I've written about for this website in the last ten years?  That seems kind of crazy and it made me think about this band for a while before writing this.  When I really put my mind to it and try to recall the prior six records, I can't.  And I realize that while every single one of them is a good record, inevitably I listen to each record for a month or two when it first comes out and then it gets filed away on the shelf and not listened to again.  The only one that I go back to repeatedly is Here and Nowhere Else.  I love that record and still play it a few times a year guaranteed.  The rest?  I'm not sure I've listened to any of them other than the year I first got them.

And that sort of sums up my feelings about the new Cloud Nothings album Final Summer.  It's a good record, with good songs - sure to please anyone that likes Cloud Nothings prior records.  And I like it, genuinely.  At the same time, it's kind of unremarkable.  I wouldn't say it's boring, necessarily, but there isn't any song on here that makes me sit up, take notice and say "this is great."  It's kind of the definition of a solid record.  It does what it's supposed to, but nothing more.  It fades into the background very easily and isn't the sort of thing that makes you want to keep going back to it.

The main reason I've listened to this album as many times as I have, is just so I could write about it.  Without that to do, I don't know that I would have been motivated to spin it more than a time or two.  Again, it's a good record.  If you like the other Cloud Nothings albums, you'll like this one.  But if you have other Cloud Nothings records, I'm not really sure you need this one.  The others get the same job done and none of them can really hold up to Here and Nowhere Else for me.

Cloud Nothings – Final Summer
https://cloudnothings.bandcamp.com/track/final-summer

Samiam - Stowaway - Sea Blue And Aqua Blue With Bone And Yellow Splatter Vinyl (/300)

Pure Noise (2023)

First of all, things are starting to get a little out of hand naming these vinyl variants.  Bone splatter?  It looks like white to me.  I mean, it barely looks like white if you look really close.  This particular variant was limited to 300 copies and was one of several variants released.  By the time I went to buy, this was the best looking one left, but I'm not getting any others.  As I've mentioned, with a few exceptions, I'm really trying to not own multiple copies of the same record, so this one will do.

Samiam is a band that I got into later than most people, but are a band I really ended up enjoying.  This is their first full length since Trips came out in 2011 and it's lovely.  The first few times I listened to it, I wasn't sure that I liked it.  But that was primarily because I was listening to it while I was working and was being too strongly influenced by the first song, "Lake Speed."  It's too fast and shouty and lacks the melodic vibe that makes Samiam such a great band.  There's something to be said about picking the right opening track, and I'm not sure this was the correct choice.

The rest of the album is quite nice.  Catchy songs, with Sergie's excellent guitar work topped with lots of melodic vocal harmonies.  It's really a perfect blend of the sort of thing that I tend to like to listen to.  I can't say that 2023 has been knocking my socks off with new releases so far this year, but Stowaway breaks through.  It might not sound like anything fresh, new or exciting, but that's not what I want from this band.  I want Samiam to sound like Samiam, and thankfully, they still do.

Samiam - Stowaway:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQtTTe2Kied8o4B4e6M8bu2h7FLTqUYhU