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Wavvves is about as simple as its author’s pedigree, but wildly more intriguing.
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If they ultimately self-destruct as they appear to be these days, their legacy is hopefully remembered for self-produced fuzz-rock and sloppy onstage antics. More importantly, hopefully they're remembered.
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There's thrilling evidence of compelling, thoughtful craftsmanship.
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The result: an album exuding wall-punching energy, ugly noise, and raging nostalgia for stale bong water and sunburn.
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Under The RadarThis is already one of the most talked-about independent releases of 2009, and rightfully so. [Spring 2009, p.75]
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The next obstacle for Wavves will be deciding whether to ditch the bedroom and work in an actual studio, but for now these lo-fi pop gems are more than enough to be getting on with.
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The incredibly lo-fi production is sweetened by Williams's knack for knocking out gloriously dumb 60s pop melodies.
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UncutDamned meets JAMC with a snifter of So-Cal pyscho-country-surf--on a series of hip, heady, lo-fi tunes, a large number of which seems to have the word "goth" in the title. [Aug 2009, p.95]
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Just like real fireworks, there's a "gather 'round" quality to this spectacle, but don't forget some earplugs.
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The second album has the more obvious and combustible singles. But there’s nothing on the second album that comes close to the 1-2-3 punch of 'California Goth,' 'Wavves,' and 'Lover.'
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Though a solid and promising outing, Wavves isn’t a revelatory record. It fits nicely into the "scene," however vague that semblance is these days.
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A few tracks here sound less like fully developed songs and more like a college-age kid tinkering with a four-track, but overall, Williams hits more than he misses.
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The music itself is relentlessly blanched in fuzz, an intentionally scuzzy sound that, despite the borderline annoying atmosphere, does less to limit these songs than grant them a claustrophobically dense beauty.
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There are plenty of songs here you won’t want to listen to more than once, but plenty that’ll also lodge in your skull like fragments of glass from a smashed Coke bottle.
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Wavvves does tend to tail off down repetition high street towards the end, but all in all, even where the experimental interlude segments of 'Goth Girls' and 'Killr Punx, Scary Demons' knit the record together like butterfly clips around a gaping wound, there's enough here to suggest Nathan Williams has the potential to become a very special talent indeed in the none too distant future.
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His melodies, whether delivered in an affected falsetto (closer to Animal Collective than the Beach Boys) or a grumpy baritone, are simple and hummable to a fault--without the energy of the distorted cassette recording, I have a feeling the songs would be a bit too cloying.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 26
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Mixed: 3 out of 26
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Negative: 5 out of 26
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Mar 2, 2018This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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FerelOApr 6, 2009
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TonyNMar 22, 2009This album is solid. Fuck you, Austin Chronicle!