Released - 8/3/10
Label - Fat Possum Records
BLURB - Wavves has gotten by on potential and expectations for most of his career. He's openly dating one of the pioneers of the lo-fi indie-pop movement, Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino. And like her, Wavves' Nathan Williams was all but set to serve as the King to her Queen. But Williams lacks the drive and honestly, the talent, to ever even dream of turning into a respectable artist. His songs largely match his personality - annoying, brash and uninspired. With track names like 'Super Soaker', 'Baseball Cards' and 'Mickey Mouse' I knew I wouldn't be able to expect much, even before I listened to the record.
Rating - 1 out of 10
FULL STORY - I read a biography on Wavves several months back when he was starting to gather some buzz. The article revolved around how Williams became involved with music as a teenager by just recording himself in his bedroom with a guitar. The biography should have been just that one sentence because that is exactly what "King of the Beach" sounds like. The most poignant part of the article focused on Williams describing how nobody 'got' his sound, and how, because of that, he decided to push forward and keep creating his own unique brand of noisy surf-punk songs. Well the only reason nobody 'got' it was because there was nothing to get. What's worse is Wavves has a terrible sense of entitlement and truly believes that his songs about smoking pot and sitting on the beach are somehow breaking new ground.
Title track "King of the Beach" opens the album with Williams constantly switching the distortion pedal on and off and singing about nothing in particular. I certainly wouldn't consider this music by any definition. You could make the argument that there are some hooks in there, but that is really stretching it. If you're one of the other members in Wavves, you've got to approach Williams and tell him you just can't shout "King of the Beach" a few time in a row and call it a day.
'Super Soaker' brings with it more terrible (and now whiny) lyrics and enough power chords to fill Blink 182's entire catalogue. The song quite possibly sets back music a good century. Williams feverishly strums through a few chords while shouting into the mic, causing widespread headaches and disappointment. By the time the song ends (which is only two minutes) you literally feel dumber.
Argued to be the single, 'Post Acid' leaves much to be desired and begs the question, is this even a song? Taking the noise-rock genre label to an entirely new level, the track has no discernible musical quality and is just Williams yelling over extremely distorted guitars. You could make the point that the song does have a bridge though, because the music does slow down and Williams actually yells even louder.
I don't know how anybody could like or listen to Wavves on a regular basis. It's really just noise and some punk kid with a guitar. This noise-pop genre that has been associated with acts like Wavvess, Surfer Blood and Best Coast is based on the premise that you are essentially drowning out hooks and melodies with waves (no pun intended) of distortion and haze, creating these ironic and nuanced tracks that at their core, remain catchy and melodic - something that both Surfer Blood and Best Coast do incredibly well. Unfortunately, Wavves and Nathan Williams are still trying to figure this out.
Tracks
1.) King of the Beach
2.) Super Soaker
3.) Idiot
4.) When Will You Come?
5.) Post Acid
6.) Take On the World
7.) Baseball Cards
8.) Convertible Balloon
9.) Green Eyes
10.) Mickey Mouse
11.) Linus Spacehead
12.) Baby Say Goodbye
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