Diamond Youth have always plugged away at a radio-friendly sound. Sometimes, I admit, it's a bit cheesy, but overall, I've always respected their versatility. Their older material I've often lumped in with bands like Queens Of The Stone Age, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party to some extent en route to tailoring their own indie brand of things. Nothing Matters stakes its claim as another round of mainstream jams but one that shouldn't be considered their first major foray into the thick of things. It's less rough than their older works but still does a solid job of doing what they do best- - making highly accessible, alternative jams come alive. Is it enough to consider them mainstays or heavyweights in their indie genre though? Well, that's still up in the air.

Songs like "Nothing Matters" and "In The Clouds" bear familiarity to their catalog as they run off as breezy, summer tunes. There's a strong surfer-rock vibe mapped into all the indie melody at hand. I've always heard fans say they're particularly appealing to '90s rock fans but I've never found this to hold water at all -- and this album doesn't sway me much from this train of thought. In fact, it seems much more modern in terms of leaning to the likes of Kasabian and, very heavily, Muse, towards the latter half. "Riptide" as a ballad as well as the slower, haunting "Spinning" are stark examples of this.

Things do feel run-of-the-mill at times and this is best attributed to the cookie-cutter Muse vibe that emanates too much in the later stages but ultimately, Diamond Youth don't fail to disappoint loyalists here. However, I can see it being a bit of a challenge to wrap in new listeners because as inviting as the music is, it feels a tad done-to-death at times. Grungy tones pop up here and there to refresh things a bit and when these come into play, you really feel that they should have used up more of this direction. Case in point, "Far Away From Earth", which has a nice buzzy flavour to add some differentiation to the overall feel of Nothing Matters. All in all, it's another decent effort from a band that's made their formula work for them. Let's hope they shake the order up a bit on the next attempt and take a few more risks. They've already got a sound product and just need to work on it some more.