Life Without Sound

It’s clear from the glittering guitar shrapnel of <i>Life Without Sound</i>’s opening minute that this is a different Cloud Nothings. Where the band’s last two albums were blasts of coiled anger, here they circle back to a tempered and polished take on their early optimism, trading the harshest sides of <i>Attack on Memory</i> and <i>Here and Nowhere Else</i> for Weezer-like pop (“Internal World”) and romantic jangle (“Modern Act”). The edges remain, but they’re a little softer now—and brighter, too.