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.!

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

Ello mates! We got a bit topsy-turvy with our scheduling so here's my choice today. Tomorrow we will have a not-music-related post of Hipster's choosing and on Sunday we will have Hipster's choice. Oh, and if we have enough time we'll try to throw a requested review in there!

With love,

HaF

P.s. I almost forgot! Let us know what you think of the new layout and whatnot. We have a chat box now, woo! Alright, I'll leave you alone now.

Paul's Choice:

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

Friend Review:

Doot do do… doot do do dooooo… Oh hi, I didn’t see you there. Alright, so my pick for this week was Nothing Hurts by Male Bonding. I first heard about these guys on XM radio because the album’s first single “Years Not Long” gets quite a fair bit of airtime on Alt Nation and XMU, those lucky ducks. Anyways, I then Youtube’d “Years Not Long” and witnessed the single’s video. Wow. It is the gayest things I’ve ever seen. And I’m not even using the connotation of gay to mean “lame”, I mean this is a very homosexual video. But that’s beside the point. The first thing you’ll notice when first opening this album is how short it is. The 14 songs whirl by in just under half an hour. As sad as it is to say, I’m glad this album was that short. The album has a punk rock feel to it mixed in with lo-fi sound. Almost all the songs are fast-paced and filled with energy, however many times it is hard to discern one song from the next. It’s hard to explain: there’s really not a bad song on the album. If I were listening to my iPod on shuffle and any one of these songs came up, I don’t think I would ever skip. However, listening to them all in a row is a bit draining. Whenever a song takes a break from the album’s typical sound, it is a breath of fresh air as is the case with “Franklin”. The instrumentation on the album sounds good, the drums are creative while simplistic and the guitar reminds me of Tokyo Police Club which is a good thing as far as guitar goes. The vocals are a bit drone-y and bland however. This band has all the right elements to be good, they just need to clean themselves up a bit and add in some more dynamics.

Friend Rating:

6.7

Hipster Review:

Mixing various styles of punk and indie rock, Male Bonding's debut Nothing Hurts creates an interesting blend of fuzz pop music. While there is a dizzying multitude of Lo-fi buzz bands these days, many of them lacking originality or distinction, the thing that makes Male Bonding an interesting group is their bleeding-heart sincerity; the passionate, albeit distorted, vocals convey heart and soul. And while close inspection may be needed to decipher what each song is about, the listener can still make out the underlying tone. The other quality that makes Nothing Hurts a distinctive experience is the musical performance of the group; while most Lo-fi bands pride themselves on their minimalist, lack-of-proper-instrumental-ability approach, Male Bonding plays with a pop mentality, crafting jumpy mini-anthems that explode instead of crash. And the album's short length makes it plenty easy to take in if you happen to be one with short patience. While it's not the brilliant work that some critics have hyped it up to be, it's still a fine album in its own right by a promising new band.

Hipster Rating:

8.4

Coming up tomorrow, tea!