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.!

MGMT- Congratulations

Taylor's Choice:

MGMT- Congratulations

Hipster Review:

MGMT is a band with which I stand on neutral ground. I did not belong in the party that either loved or hated the band's debut Oracular Spectacular; I just thought it was a pretty good album by an interesting band. And now that they've staved off the popularity thrust upon them with hits "Kids" and "Time To Pretend," MGMT has become a more cohesive, fully-formed group, and with Congratulations they've created an album solely for themselves. Is it the masterpiece they were born to make? Not quite. Congratulations finds the group more stable and secure in their weirdness, and because of this comfort they are able to expand and stretch their creative ideas to their breaking point. More often than not the results are pleasant; however, there are (a LOT of) ideas that are thrown here and there on the album that at times seem too excessive, the best example being the overlong and overcooked 12-minute "Siberian Breaks." And sometimes their courageous ideas stretch a bit too far, resulting in songs that otherwise would have been just fine on their own. I do like the direction that the band is taking, and I think that this album of excess was important for their artistic growth. Perhaps next time they'll make their masterpiece, but in the meantime their debut will do just fine... And on occasion this too.

Hipster Rating:

7.6

Friend Review:

Just like the last review, I was pleasantly surprised with MGMT’s “Congratulations”. My history with MGMT has been a bit bland. I first heard “Time to Pretend” and thought it was a good song. Then I heard “Kids” and thought it was a pretty good song. Then I heard “Electric Feel” and thought it was one of the top five worst songs I’ve ever heard on the radio. That’s not an exaggeration, I seriously hatehatehate that song so much. I listened to “Oracular Spectacular” at least once and honestly can’t remember how I felt about it. All I know is if an album isn’t memorable it’s probably not very good.
Let me talk about my first impression of this album for a moment: the album art. Holy shiz, that’s bad. It reminds me of an 80’s computer game. Luckily, you can’t judge an album by its cover. This album completely changed my mind about MGMT. Unfortunately, the only time I had to fully listen to it was in the car so I was not able to take notes on each song like I usually do. But still I got a good feel for it. The whole album felt like a mix of synth from Wolf Parade and vocals from Arcade Fire to me. The opening track, “It’s Working” caught me right off that bat with its catchy bass line and simply superb drumming. Speaking of catchy, check out the synth in “Song for Dan Tracy”. Good stuff man! One of the doubts I had for this album was the twelve-minute track “Siberian Breaks” Ask Taylor, I never like a track that’s too long, but this one was different to me. It felt like I was always turning the corner to a different sound so I never even felt the slightest urge to check how long was left in the song. For me, the gem of this album was “Brian Eno”. MGMT takes the most basic formula, a fun song with a chorus that begs you to sing along. Combine this with a bridge to mix things up a bit and you’ve got a fantastic song to top an above average album.
Simply put MGMT made a great album that makes me want to see them live. I’ll definitely keep this album around for frequent listens, it deserves it!

Friend Rating:

7.5

Coming up on Wednesday, "My Best Friend Is You" by Kate Nash!