It's an algorithmic dream date: Google "Cloud Nothings" or "Wavves" and in each case the other band is one of the top entries in the "people also search" field. The overlap is inevitable: two critically acclaimed indie rock bands that actually rock, ones that qualify as pop and punk but somehow not pop-punk. Yet, Wavves X Cloud Nothings represents a sudden intersection after the two artists have spent the past five years aiming in opposite directions. Dylan Baldi wants esteemed producers to act like P90x coaches, helping him shed the flabby baggage of his earliest recording for something meaner, leaner, and shredded, whereas Nathan Williams employs them like high-end makeup artists. You'd have to go back to 2009 for the last time Wavves and Cloud Nothings were functionally similar, or No Life For Me can save you the trouble.
Before the turn of the decade, both bands were solo projects manufacturing confectionary nuggets about being young, bitter and bored, wrapped in metallic hiss—the equivalent of eating chocolates without removing the foil. There's no obvious reason for either Baldi or Williams to be nostalgic for this period, as their careers have continued to evolve and prosper along with their music. Maybe they're eager to revisit a time when their every move wasn't subject to scrutiny, though slapping both of their highly recognizable brands on the cover doesn't exactly lower expectations, despite the modest rollout.
Still, this album is the most effortless music either has produced in years, which ultimately serves as proof of how easy it is for both Baldi and Williams to write good songs and also the care it takes to make them great. There are solid hooks scattered all over No Life For Me, and they sound like they could've been knocked out in five minutes—each melodic note notches in the expected place over thrumming power chords and steady drums. The seven proper tracks are all opportunities to parse the fine difference between urgency and immediacy: much of No Life For Me happened without much noticeable struggle, but did it need to happen?
In the end, "Wavves X Cloud Nothings" manages to be misleading on numerous levels. It implies a full partnership or at least participation from both bands—this is essentially "Wavves feat. Dylan Baldi", as it calls on Nathan's brother Joel as a producer and his drummer Brian Hill, who is not Jayson Gerycz. Hill is a fine drummer but he's not one of the few plus-value drummers in rock music, a guy who can singlehandedly change a band's trajectory and take a song from an 8 to a 10. This might've reflected more on Baldi than Hill had the dreamy, drumless closer "Nothing Hurts" not been the LP's highlight. However, "Come Down" and the title track are essentially Cloud Nothings deep cuts with a solid rhythm section that never pushes against Baldi's vocals, never threatens any kind of chaos. It's possible Hill could've provided these things had No Life For Me been the result of more protracted sessions, but you might come out of this record thinking Gerycz is somehow still underrated.
Moreover, the nominal "X" implies a factorial relationship between the two acts—maybe this could've been a muscling up of Wavves' wiry surf-and-skate physique or the achromatic bleakness of Attack on Memory or Here and Nowhere Else given a suntan. Tilt that "X" 45 degrees and you've got a more accurate formula: This is more an example of addition, two artists with very similar writing styles piling on top of each other.
In fact, Williams and Baldi are virtually indistinguishable emotionally or sonically here. The same themes of intransigence, ennui, and self-pity that serve as the basis for nearly every one of their previous songs is shuffled and endlessly reworded, Wavves and Cloud Nothings lyrics turned into magnetic poetry tiles grabbed out of a bag. Their blunt admissions never sound insincere despite being shared and workshopped, just pro forma—"I'm such a fucking mess/ Don't know at all how it's gonna go," "I feel it open up around me." "Sometimes, you'll find nothing ever comes down."
Looking at the most recent, productive relationships between established songwriting entities—Run the Jewels, FFS, for example—there's a provision of contrast, a clear quid pro quo where each party has something the other wants or needs. Whether or not there's chemistry between Baldi and Williams, there's no volatility. They don't even sound like they're having fun: the bummer attitude was a given, but neither is inspired to go beyond their own sonic boundaries, nor is there any sign of friendly one-upmanship, no indication that a truly great idea from these sessions wouldn't be tucked away for private usage. That wouldn't be much of an issue had this partnership reflected its low-key creative process by having Wavves X Cloud Nothings go by a different name or having the results given away as a freebie or just a lark. But No Life For Me is a 21-minute record with two instrumentals that costs $10—the same price you could pay for Attack on Memory or King of the Beach. Which is to say that Wavves X Cloud Nothings didn't need to result in a good album to justify its existence, but No Life For Me did.
