They quickly pivoted back, however “Daggers of Light” is a subtle reworking of their earlier work, grafting the triumphant melodies of their singles with the frenetic footwork they usually reserve for deep cuts. Meanwhile, “I'd Get Along” is Cloud Nothings bringing together, creating verse and chorus, tension and release, from a single line. For all its sheer brilliance, “I'd Get Along” can't help but tease a concern that's come out of Cloud Nothings' last few albums: Do they sound effortless because they've mastered their craft, or because? don't they push themselves?
“Silence” or “Mouse Politics” or, really, take your pick – it's all melodic without being crazy, expressive without being disdainful, true believers in the enduring relevance of Hüsker Dü and the Replacements without conforming to the “dudes rock” stereotype. This was also true The shadow I remember and The Black Hole Understandswhich occasionally felt sandwiched between Cloud Nothings' edgier earlier work and a more studied, robust sound they hadn't quite managed yet.
In the past, “ambition” in a Cloud Nothings song meant playing faster, stretching out for seven minutes, or doing both. This is not happening Final Summer. But the sharper production sharpens the edge rather than blunting it, highlighting subtle edges that set the deeper tracks apart from any random six-track from a previous Cloud Nothings album: the harmonized punctuation on “Daggers of Light” that balances the bile with psychedelic sweetness. the acoustic illusion of the endlessly repeating riff of the title track against Chris Brown's bass melodies. a melancholy piano line that underscores Baldi's State of the Universe speech in “Silence.”
“You can make any paradise you want/Why do you turn off every little light/And live in the dark?” Baldi asks in this song, ostensibly to the various bigots, fundamentalists and climate change deniers he addresses earlier. His question might also aim, a little, at the mirror – a challenge to make a Cloud Nothings album that lives up to the standards set by those with the black and white covers. Both in its brighter sound and in its feeling, Final Summer can be taken as a confirmation of the underestimates of 2017 Life without sound, a bright, sunny pop-rock album that led Baldi to claim, “I don't wanna feel like I've lost my life anymore.” Definitely a change in perspective on “Lost Days”, but not quite the same as welcoming the serenity. “I have to be happy with what I have for me,” shouts Baldi Final Summerits title track, realizing something that would have been frankly unimaginable on previous Cloud Nothings albums—that happiness is work, but it's worth it. While walking through a block full of college kids the same age he was when the project began, Baldi thinks, “Can you believe how far I've come?” Anyone listening since then Lighting up nor will it. Cloud Nothings has never sounded so committed to going the distance.
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