Anyone else's parents used to warn them about sickos in the neighborhood who'd hide razor blades in trick or treat bags during Halloween? Well, it's a fair warning before encountering Cloud Nothings' "No Future/No Past" less than a year removed from their self-titled LP, which was a strong if not always distinct batch of jangly pop-punk often as diffuse and sweet as cotton candy. The project evolved from Dylan Baldi solo to a road-tested band, so the title's negation manifests in Cloud Nothings undergoing a complete sonic overhaul, with foreboding drones and cathartic bashing echoing In Utero far more than Weezer. Baldi's vocals are given unnerving exposure, as they escalate from queasy atonality to a serrated wail-- all of it honed to a stark vérité by Steve Albini, who's proven to be pretty good at this sort of thing. "No Future/No Past" initially seems like a curious first single, but leaving the lo-fi warm and fuzzies behind turns out to be a bracing statement of purpose from a band who didn't seem capable of making statements.

[from Attack on Memory; out 1/24/12 via Carpark]