Wavves - King of the Beach

Paul's Choice:

Wavves - King of the Beach

Friend Review:

So I got into Wavves when I guess I felt like my raising my indie cred a little bit so I just randomly decide to listen to their sophomore album Wavvves. I honestly think Wavves is one of the dumbest band names ever created. Honestly, why? One v wasn’t good enough for you? Screw you and your damn v’s. But nonetheless, I fell in love with the music. It was my first experience with lo-fi music and I definitely dug it. The one problem I had with the album was that it had too much filler to me. There’re a lot of instances where it just seems like noise to me. Now, you might say it’s “2deep4me” but whatever, I think Wavves is at its best when it’s full of the pop-punk sound I love. This is why I think King of the Beach is definitely a step up from Wavves’ past attempts. I gotta get this out of the way first, this is the ugliest album art in the history of the world. MGMT’s Congratulations looks like Jenna Fischer in comparison to this piece of crap. However, King of the Beach definitely has a more mainstream feel to it in comparison to Wavvves (seriously, dumbest album name ever as well, multiplied by the band name). It has what I believe to be the theme song of the summer, “King of the Beach” as well as several other pop dancers. What detract from this album are the slower droney songs which I think just takes away from the bouncy rhythm of the album. Nevertheless, I am very impressed with this album and in my opinion it is one of the best of the year so far.

Friend Rating:

7.9

Hipster Review:

Wavves' first two self-titled albums were noisy, feedback-laden records that, upon close listens, revealed frontman Nathan Williams to be a pretty impeccable pop craftsman. The emotions that the songs conveyed seemed empty to the naked eye (song titles like "I'm So Bored" don't exactly scream "inspired"), yet nevertheless a present sentiment was felt, even if it was a bit obscure.
Now, with a full rhythm section comprised of the late Jay Reatard's backing band, Wavves has made some changes to it's sound. The arrangements on King Of The Beach are more varied and dynamic compared to the previous albums' more simple song structures, and Nathan's singing is significantly more audible, which pulls the curtains away to reveal his surprisingly emotive voice. The songs here are, to my ears at least, reminiscent of 90's Alt-rock, which is actually a fitting sound for them ("Linus Spacehead," musically at least, brought Nirvana to mind). The lyrics are still in the general area that the first two albums were in; generally, Nathan mostly talks about being bored, being apathetic about being bored, and getting high from being so apathetic about being bored. It's not the deepest lyrical pattern ever, and he's aware of it ("I hate my writing; it's all the same."). But he's not as emotionally dead as that pattern might suggest; "Baseball Cards" and "Green Eyes" have Nathan showing a child-like romantic side, and are very simple and sweet in their sincerity. Overall, King Of The Beach is a good evolution for Wavves' music, and honestly I wasn't expecting much of a maturation. But the album is undeniably their finest moment, and I'm excited to see what else they have to offer in the future.

Hipster Rating:

8.3

Coming up next, /\/\/\Y/\ (Jeez that’s a stupid name for an album…) by M.I.A.!