I go outside and see all these things that should be real. Come on, you're a part of it, can you breathe or can you feel?

Cloud Nothings - Here And Nowhere Else  (2014) ****

Nominated by: Alex Geddes

Music club: MNAC

Highlight:  Now Here In

OH HELL YES!!!!

I played this a lot while in a fever dream, battling covid-19. I'm triple vaxed so I had a mild dose but it still kicked my arse for a few days.

I love guitar bands that play with energy, passion and commitment (I have quite a few Nada Surf CDs frinstance) and Cloud Nothings deliver in spades on those three counts.

They reminded me at times (those passionate shouty vocals and guitar swashbuckles in songs like Quieter Today) of Stiff Little Fingers. So I dug out my vinyl copy of Nobody's Heroes and played that LOUD as well. They went well together.

Joy unconfined!

Tough picking highlights - Now Here In is an excellent first track - drew me in and made me smile, that drum frenzy on Psychic Trauma, guitar blizzard of No Thoughts, the Pattern Walks momentum via driving bass and the football chant style vocal (and I like the way it changes tack half way through - although it does go on for a bit), and the final track lives up to Alex' billing - catchy as all get out.

As Alex indicates - it's not perfect (very very few albums are) but it's damn fine.