Album Review: Wavves & Cloud Nothings - No Life For Me

They say birds of a feather flock together, so it should be no real surprise that two of lo-fi garage-rock’s most introspective frontmen should join forces. The real revelation lies in how well it all works.

San Diegans Wavves started off as a solo outing for Nathan Williams while Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings began as a bedroom project by Dylan Baldi, and the two main men have united for this, their debut collaboration. Wavves have the reputation as formidable party stoners while Cloud Nothings are usually viewed as quite earnest in comparison. The middle ground found here suits both worldviews quite well.

The pair wrote the songs together and a few tracks, like Come Down and Nervous, marry their respective bands’ strengths into something transcendent (although the former gets increasingly neurotic with repeated spins), yet the rest of the offerings comes across as catchy but pensive garage that’s slightly nondescript (and because Wavves’ rhythm section got the nod that band seems to get more of a voice overall). It finishes with Baldi offering the plaintive Nothing Hurts as if it’s a solo outing, a nice ray of (relative) sunshine with which to farewell the foray.

At nine tracks and 21 minutes this clearly isn’t meant to be a grand artistic statement, with songs kicking off and spluttering to an end almost at their leisure, and while this fun collab will no doubt tide fans of each band over until their next respective releases, as a memento No Life For Me is more a fun curio than a keepsake of any massive substance.