Dylan Baldi
The fist-pumping loser anthem of 2012, “Wasted Days” is a blitzkrieg love letter to anyone who believed they would grow up to be universally adored, richer than God, with a beautiful house, car, and wife, and everything else David Byrne once seemed so confused about. The standout track from Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings’ third album, Attack On Memory, is also one of 2012′s best songs.
“I thought … I would … be more … than this!!!” Cloud Nothings frontman Dylan Baldi shouts over and over with a contempt for his failures and life as it has turned out. Forget for a second he’s barely out of his teens. The cymbals crash, the guitars blaze, the anger rises, all of it in the listener’s face.
It is enough to get a rock fan’s blood pumping. And then Baldi’s shouts fade out, giving way to six minutes of at turns shimmering and menacing instrumental rock. Baldi’s choral chants return in the final minute of the nearly nine-minute long track, sounding as pissed off and unforgiving as before.
Young angst sparks fire, indeed.
[...] The show’s highlight was their face-melting performance of “Wasted Days”, a song I previously declared my love for on this site. [...]