X-Ray Smoke Color Vinyl

Nothing have always been rule-breakers. Shoegaze renegades whove rebuilt the stereotypically lightweight genre in their own bloodyknuckled American image. Outlaw poets spilling existential dread on mile-wide canvasses of fuzz and reverb. Beginning as a Philly-born bedroom solo project in 2010, Nothings music has always captured the full scale of the human condition, both the blaring anger and the whispering sadness. a short history of decay, Nothings fifth solo album and first for Run For Cover Records, widens that aperture even further, providing the most hi-def rendering of Nothing to date. The band have never sounded this colossal, never felt this intimate, never been this honest.

With the strongest arsenal in Nothings ever-shifting lineup locked in — guitarist Doyle Martin (Cloakroom), bassist Bobb Bruno (Best Coast), drummer Zachary Jones (MSC, Manslaughter 777), and third guitarist Cam Smith (Ladder To God, also of Cloakroom) — singer-songwriter Domenic Nicky Palermo knew he had the manpower to make the bands most ambitious record yet. Co-written and produced with Whirr guitarist Nicholas Bassett, and with additional production and mixing work from Sonny Diperri (DIIV, Julie), a short history of decay, is the most evolved musical statement in Nothings catalog. Songs like Cannibal World and Toothless Coal are cataclysmic lashings of mechanized industrial-gaze that sound like My Bloody Valentine — except more extreme.

On the other end of the spectrum, the ornately morose Purple Strings boasts a beautiful string arrangement that includes harpist — and two-time Nothing contributor — Mary Lattimore. That baroque delicacy permeates other a short history of decay, highlights, particularly The Rain Dont Care, a lilting ballad that channels the worn-down elegance of Mojave 3, and also Nerve Scales, a pattering bop that resembles Radiohead in its marriage of otherworldly atmosphere and mortal precision. Palermo calls the new record a final chapter. Not the end of Nothing, but the conclusion of a story that began with Nothings 2014 debut, Guilty of Everything — another album about time, regret, and confronting uncomfortable truths — and now resolves with a short history of decay,. As much a snapshot of Palermos past as it is a leap into Nothings future.

Tracks
1 Never Come Never Morning
2 Cannibal World
3 A Short History of Decay
4 The Rain Don’t Care
5 Purple Strings
6 Toothless Coal
7 Ballet of the Traitor
8 Nerve Scales
9 Essential Tremors