REVIEW: Nothing "Guilty of Everything"

Nothing-Guilty of Everything

(2014, Relapse)

1. Hymn to the Pilory

2. Dig

3. Bent Nail

4. Endlessly

5. Somersault

6. Get Well

7. Beat Around the Bush

8. B&E

9. Guilty of Everything

In early 1990, British critic Steve Sutherland wrote a piece for Melody Maker about a new sound quickly enveloping London and surrounding areas. The cacophony of washed out guitars, drenched in reverb and delay, was already being referred to as "shoegazing", a nod to the physical stance its purveyors took while performing. Sutherland, taking note of the incestual nature of many of these acts, referred to it as "the scene that celebrates itself". Bands like Chapterhouse, Lush, and Slowdive (the Jawbreaker equivalent of shoegaze folklore) were a tight knit group that often attended each others' shows and routinely filled in for one another at various gigs to little fanfare.

Flash forward to 2014: 20 years after the breakup and subsequent return of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, a new generation of musicians have seemingly come full circle and rediscovered this small British subsect of noise. Philadelphia's Nothing, led by former Horror Show frontman Dominic Palmero, represent the prototypical makeup of today's shoegaze groups. The band has featured a rotating cast of characters over the years (including frequent tourmate and Whirr mainman Nick Bassett) and toured nationally with acts such as Deafheaven (who, if you've been a sleeping under a rock, are probably the most critically acclaimed group since the fucking Beatles), garnering a buzz that eventually leads us to the release of Guilty of Everything on Philadelphia's own Relapse Records. 

Guilty of Everything harkens back to the glory days of noisy rock and roll, forgoing contrived attempts at innovation in favor of mastering their chosen craft. First single and standout track "Dig" is a four minute audial version of the "shoegaze" Wikipedia page, covering the entire spectrum of the genre. From the dual male/female lead vocal buried underneath a wall of guitar to the distorted bass line, Nothing immediately time warps to 1992, presumably opening up for Ride in a smokey Reading pub.

"Bent Nail" and "Get Well" up the tempo and imply a heavy Chapterhouse influence. "Get Well", in particular, wears the band's hardcore punk influences on its sleeve. The track demonstrates why shoegaze is the next logical step for bored hardcore kids; it's loud and introspective, and its power lies within its dynamics. Never loud for the sake of being loud, Nothing rely heavily on deafening melodies and powerful crescendos for the majority of GoE.

Standout track "Somersault" explores the full spectrum of these dynamics, ending with a chilling decrescendo that couples a thumping floor tom and droning feedback. Poshlost holdover "B&E" features a prominent lead guitar melody, a device Nothing and their peers employ often in favor of letting vocals carry tracks. However, when Nothing ventures away from the confines of layering, they truly shine. Title track "Guilty of Everything" is led by an opening clean guitar, highlighting the beauty and simplicity of Palmero's songwriting before erupting into a river of noise that cascades for a full two minutes before the album abruptly ends.

Nothing are, for better or for worse, the quintessential act of the shoegaze revival. While fellow "nugaze" standouts Alcest and Deafheaven attempt to push the proverbial envelope by mixing genres (black metal, in both cases, and dreampop in the case of Alcest's latest), Nothing seems more interested in the art of the pop song. They are the new Slowdive, for all intents and purposes, a comparison which Palermo would likely welcome (although he did refer to Slowdive frontman Neil Halstead as "kind of a fucking cunt" in a recent Noisey interview). Indeed, while members often give praise to the scene's forefathers in interviews, it is clear Nothing and their peers are more interested in furthering their own takes on the genre than living in comparison of their influences. They will continue to celebrate each other via touring, adulating Facebook posts and meddling side projects such as Death of Lovers, a joint Whirr/Nothing project that, like Nothing themselves, is still very much in its infancy. 

If the quality of Guilty of Nothing is any indication of what's to come, the Americanized "nugaze" revolution is poised to grow even bigger this year.