A Short History Of Decay And Ruin (Run For Cover Records) is Nothing‘s fifth album. It opens with a more organic feel as a new level of vulnerability is exposed with the strum of an acoustic guitar and the vocals stepping out from behind the indifferent haze of effects. A clever way to lure you into this album, it gives the impresion Domenic has stepped away from Shoegaze into some kind of Emo/Indie Rock, but by the time you get to the second song and lead single “Cannibal World,” it’s clear to see this is not the case, but he is still toying with the expectations of what Shoegaze can be as a break beat drum sample keeps the song moving. Yet the main vibe that consumes the overall sound is a return to the woozy swirl of My Bloody Valentine-influenced guitars.

Guitarist Doyle Martin is the only member to carry over from the “Great Dismal” sessions. The rest of the band is pretty much all members of Cloakroom. The experimentation with electronic sounds continues on the title track, as it starts off with a programmed drum beat leading the way into, until they kick with the more commanding dreamy wall of overdrive that gives a nod in the direction of Grunge. The vocals sit further back in the mix, and are more thoughtful than your average Shoegaze band, even when pushed back into the guitars. 

Things drop back down to a more delicate strum for “The Rain Don’t Care,” which has a lonely reverb haunting the guitar tone, that might seem more likely to be heard on a Chris Isaak album, until the breathy plea of the vocals to create a Smashing Pumpkins vibe. It’s dreamy, but the vocal arrangement is not as hooky, leaving the guitar to do most of the heavy lifting. Though on this album the vocals have expanded the range of colors being used, which gives these guys the edge over other Shoegaze revivalists. 

The acoustic guitar opening “Purple Strings” feels more like early Radiohead. It’s fragile like their nineties-era ballads. When the drums come in, it even feels like the slow build of  “Creep.” But unlike Radiohead, here they are not kicking in with grungy guitar and busting out power chords. Instead, they relish floating further down the dreamy trail. There is also more of a nineties feel to “Toothless Coal,” which does bring the power chords with it. It might be the album’s best song, as the melody works really well and is subtle. Sure, the band has hit that sort of thing with heavier intentions in their earlier work, but this is at least a great compromise. 

While this is often a more introspective album that employs a great deal of ambience, it is broken up by moments like the interplay of drums and guitar that are more defined on “Nerve Scale.” This leads to the vocals fading more from the spotlight to a ghostly croon. The album closes with the hesitant strum of “Essential Tremors.” It touches on the crossroads where early Emo intersected with the atmosphere of Shoegaze, before building into a more Hum-like Rock climax. 

Nothing had moved away from your typical Shoegaze sound on the last couple of albums so taking a step back into a somewhat more textbook approach to Shoegaze at times is an odd choice, but it works from a songwriting perspective, and fans of their more atmospheric vulnerability rather than their Grunge bangers, will get what they want here. 

Buy the album here:
https://runforcoverrecords.com/collections/nothing

8 / 10
WIL CIFER
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