''The Shadow I Remember'' is the seventh studio album by American rock band

Cloud Nothings Cloud Nothings is an American indie rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, United States, founded by singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi. It currently consists of lead singer and guitarist Dylan Baldi, drummer Jayson Gerycz, and bassist Chris Brown. Beginni ...

. It was released on February 26, 2021 via

Carpark Records Carpark Records is an independent record label based in Washington, D.C. History Carpark Records was established by Todd Hyman in 1999 in New York City. In 2005, the label relocated to Washington, D.C. Carpark has subsidiary labels. Acute Re ...

Background

The album was recorded at

Electrical Audio Electrical Audio is a recording facility founded in Chicago, Illinois by musician and recording engineer Steve Albini in 1997. Hundreds of independent music projects have been recorded there. Unlike most producers, Albini refused to take any roya ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, with record producer

Steve Albini Steven Frank Albini (; July 22, 1962 – May 7, 2024) was an American musician and audio engineer. He founded and fronted the influential post-hardcore and noise rock bands Big Black (1981–1987), Rapeman (1987–1989) and Shellac (band), ...

Release

On October 13, 2020, Cloud Nothings announced the release of the new album, which they had written while in quarantine during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Singles

The first single to be released from the album, "Am I Something," was announced on the same day as the album details. On November 17, 2020, "The Spirit Of" was announced as the second single. The band released the third single, "Nothing Without You," on February 3, 2021. In a press release, lead vocalist Dylan Baldi said the song "explores both the negative and positive aspects of dependency, whether it be on a person, a place, an object, or nothing at all."

Critical reception

''The Shadow I Remember'' was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 77 based on 13 reviews. At AnyDecentMusic?, the website gave the album a 7.3 out of 10 based on 10 reviews. Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Heather Phares gave the release a 4.5 out of 5, explaining "''The Shadow I Remembers compact, hooky outbursts are just as potent as the slow-burning epics on Cloud Nothings' other albums. They're so seasoned that they can shift from bouncy to crushing and back again in a blink on "The Spirit Of," or whip through a dramatic buildup, blistering choruses, and a radiant coda in 90 seconds on "It's Love." In a review for ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'', Ben Lynch gave a mixed review for the album, noting the music is "typically replete with hooks and furious one-liners", and the band should "reassess once more before they head into the studio again."

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. ;Cloud Nothings * Dylan Baldi – lead vocals, backing vocals, rhythm guitar * Chris Brown – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals * TJ Duke – bass, backing vocals * Jayson Gerycz – drums ;Additional personnel * Steve Albini – engineering, production * Rob Carmichael – design, layout * Brett Naucke – synthesizer * Greg Obis – mixing, mastering * Macie Stewart – vocals

References

External links

''The Shadow I Remember''
on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow I Remember 2021 albums Cloud Nothings albums Carpark Records albums Wichita Recordings albums