“The Spirit Of,” the new track by Cloud Nothings, cracks open my id and sluices in everything my younger self ever wanted in a song. It’s guitars and drums and bass, and producer Steve Albini making a lovely smear of it all. Lead singer Dylan Baldi delivers basic lyrics like an incantation of angst (“Who am I to be? I’d rather have fallen”) until the litany becomes overwhelming, his voice as ragged as a flannel that was the sole garment worn during a long, hard winter. And it gets all it’s work done in two and a half minutes, making it a model of rock ‘n’ roll efficiency.

The Shadow I Remember, the new album from Cloud Nothings, is scheduled for release in February 2021.