Life Without Sound

Dylan Baldi maintains simple, admirable standards in quality. A thing I like to do with all of my records is drive around with them, the 25-year-old Cloud Nothings frontman says. In high school, I would listen to music for hours like that: just driving through the suburbs of Cleveland. And if it sounds good to me in that context and I can think of high school me listening to it and saying, 'That's okay,' I feel good about the record. This is the one that's felt best. This is Life Without Sound, the radiant, far-far-better-than okay fourth full-length his rock outfit has recorded since he began writing and releasing songs on his own under the Cloud Nothings alias in 2008. While it's highly acclaimed predecessor-2014's Here and Nowhere Else-came together spontaneously, in the little time that touring allowed, Life Without Sound took shape under far less frenetic circumstances.