It’d be nice if I could go ahead and review the new Wavves album without boring you with a mention of mastermind (choice of words...?) Nathan Williams’ infamous meltdown at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona last year. But given the lyrical content shrouding Wavves’ punchier, poppier songs on their third outing King of the Beach... Williams just won’t let me. This time around, Wavves don’t just sound stoned, bored, apathetic (although make no mistake, they definitely still sound this way), but Williams also sound vindictive. He’s got something to prove this time—whether that means justifying the ridiculous amount of hype the band’s garnered over their short two-year existence in the lime-light, showing everyone there were actual songs under all that distortion, or that indeed he’s completely, totally over what happened in Spain that fateful day. Regardless, it’s nice to hear a surf-pop-punk record that’s actually trying, even if it’s not trying very hard. When you’ve got a record with a cat smoking a joint on the front cover, a little goes a long way.
Opening the record with a bang, Wavves reveal themselves as an entirely different beast right of the bat. Two obvious things stand out: the fact that Williams enlisted former Jay Reatard backing rhythm section, and that he’s peeled away a few (at least) of the thick layers of distorted effects that made his band initially intriguing. But these two changes pay off big for Williams’ songs; For the most part, King of the Beach is wildly fun, highly energetic, and refigures the hazy, stony Wavves into a supercharged pop-punk band with tight songs (full songs even, with verses, choruses, bridges, the whole deal). In general, the album feels like Williams lifting the veil from his music, and letting listeners have a peek inside. The only problem is, what’s inside is that sniveling jerk everyone already knew Wavves really was.
He’s still just a kid who doesn’t care, sitting around playing Nintendo all day getting high. There’s a strange disagreement going on inside the mind of Williams as manifest throughout these 12 songs: is he a narcissist, a masochist, what? It’s a mix of hubris and shame: “You’re never going to stop me,” Williams cries, before continuing on, consistently calling himself “stupid,” an “idiot,” reducing his opinions/apologies to “shit,” etc. over the course of the album time and again. And given what Williams has been through over the last year, it’s hard to hear “Post-Acid” without thinking it’s likely a wink to everyone who’s ever blogged about him: “Hold my hand in my time of need, would you understand? Won’t you understand in my time of need... that I’m just having fun with you?” Ah, the jokes on us?
Does it matter? As enjoyably rocking as a lot of these songs are, I’m inclined to say no. The album’s A-side is all-but-perfect, rounded out with “Super Soaker,” “Idiot,” and “Post-Acid,”—all tunes that have a lightly nostalgic eye for 90s alternative like Green Day’s Dookie, and that’s meant in the best way possible. The record has its fair share of oddballs, too; “When Will You Come” and “Baseball Cards” are tracks that sound just left-field enough to stand as outliers, but just quirky enough to give the album as a whole what one might characterize as variety, perhaps something missing from the previous Wavves albums. They help legitimize Williams’ efforts to reemerge is an artist who’s in it to win it, even if these songs find Wavves at their sleepiest, and subsequently bog down the album’s otherwise propulsive force and motion.
But the sound fans came to know and love from the first two albums isn’t entirely gone either. “Mickey Mouse” is written in what one might consider to be classic Wavves form and fashion, with a nasally Williams crooning out his high-pitched “woo” melodies over a repetitive one-chord swing beat. Let’s just say the new Wavves blows this stuff out of the water, but die-hards will likely champion this as evidence that Williams’ true genius is still there. As such, King of the Beach benefits from a diverse record to the extent that its appeal will certainly reach further than it’s ever been able.
Track List:
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
