Nothing – Dance on the Blacktop

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You know when a band is huge when even almost fifty years apart from their split, their echos still remain. The Beatles are one of the biggest rock bands ever, that’s for sure. What we hear in Nothing – by the way, what a cool name – is the melancholic version of The Beatles and of the 1960s. “Dance on the Blacktop” doesn’t give enough reason to dance, but it’s a cool album if you are looking for something out of the box. Well, not really out of the box, but a little out. Nonetheless, some songs of “Dance on the Blacktop” are much more related to the 1960s vibe than to The Beatles. However, The Beatles were an inspiration to everybody back then.

All “Dance on the Blacktop” has downtempo paces and melodic tunes almost depressive. Most songs express the melancholy rock bands are struggling to show. For those contemporaneous bands, happiness is something forgotten and over. Anyway, I can’t say I don’t agree. “Us We Are” is the song that shows it most. A shoegazed distorted guitar giving some angry to the tune, vocals with a blasé attitude, that’s the motto to Nothing. Nothing keep a tradition of building up tunes with chordal riffing. It’s a very interesting thing to do. So are the naive guitar interventions as in “I Hate the Flowers.” Well put. But the burning question is who would dare to do that in the 1960s? No one, I suppose. Only Black Sabbath.

Nothing are a band that build up interesting sad melodies. “The Carpenter’s Son” is one of them. Slow-paced, notes seem to fade away at any time. Kind of song drummers have time to anything else in an alive show. Maybe drink a beer, talk a little, fix the cymbals. But it works fine to Nothing intent.

Nothing and “Dance on the Blacktop” won’t save rock, but sure are some fun.

Nothing “Dance on the Blacktop” will be released on August 20th via Relapse Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Zero Day
  2. Bad Land
  3. You Wind Me Up
  4. Plastic Migraine
  5. Us We Are
  6. Hail on Palace Pier
  7. I Hate the Flowers
  8. The Carpenter’s Son
  9. HOPE Is Just Another Word With a Hole in It

Watch “Zero Day” official video here: