WAVVES – WAVVVES
All the blogs that be, and giants of indie criticism like Pitchfork and Billboard, are a-buzz with chatter about the frenetic pop noise Nathan Williams is making. As the album progresses, it becomes very difficult to discern any lyrical details due to the mix being forced so hard into the red that all we’re left with is a blistering white-noise crackle, punctuated by undertones of the melody, particularly the insanely surf-toned Beach Demon. All the songs carry on this format – rapid-RPM summer pop anthems, screamed with slack-jawed looseness and kept on track by the foot-to-floor thumping of the drums. The extreme sound is a tad annoying, but by the same token the album carries a consistency of energy that is very catchy. Similar to the San Franciscan power-melody trio Dodos, Williams’ music channels beach pop into wild, abrasive, and curiously hooky pop experiments and the occasional psychedelic stoner jump, such as To The Dregs and Weed Demon. What clearly comes across here is a complete ambivalence for the concept of a marketable sound – the distortion really gets pretty trying, but this is what makes Wavves a truly underground project; not afraid of being its own beast, warts and all.
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