By John Norris @jonnynono

Here’s to going outside the box. Two artists are doing it this week on Noisevox: On Face Time Zac Pennington talks about the unorthodox approach to the latest Parenthetical Girls releases. And in one of the most exciting new albums of this new year, Dylan Baldi flips the script on his band Cloud Nothings in as dramatic a fashion as we have seen any young band do in a long time. You remember Cloud Nothings, of course—lumped perhaps unfairly into the over-hyped “lo-fi wave” of ’09-’10, when a Baldi’s compilation of cheerfully raw bedroom solo recordings was released as his debut Turning On. It was followed early last year by a self-titled release, jam packed with a crazy amount of infectious and fuzzy jangle-pop, notably on tracks like “Forget You All the Time” and the sugar rush bounce of “Nothing’s Wrong”.

Well, that was then. Right off the bat, Attack on Memory lives up to its name: Opener “No Future No Past” is bleak neo-grunge, Baldi’s nihilistic vocals giving way to a screamo finish the likes of which we haven’t heard Cloud Nothings even approach before, while the pummelling, nearly nine-minute “Wasted Days” features a raucous, layered four-minute space-guitar jam and another angst-filled coda. Maybe just to assure us he hasn’t totally gone trenchcoat mafia on us, “Stay Useless” and “Fall In” reclaim a bit of pop-punk pep, but it’s still a far cry from the Cloud Nothings we thought we knew.

And this may be just the beginning. As he told me recently for Interview, “I guess my idea for this band is to be influenced by something different for every album. So it’s almost like making a new band with every record we make I think. That’s kind of the path we’re headed down now anyway.” An unconventional approach, but an exciting one.

You can read more of my QnA with Baldi at Interviewmagazine.com. But for now you really should check out this game changing album. Attack on Memory is just that. Tell Noisevox what you think of the latest from Cloud Nothings.