Afraid of Heights
Wavves
Distributed by Ghost Ramp/Mom + Pop/Warner Bros.
Wavves has always been the perfect band to soundtrack the summer. The band is a sort of ever-shifting who’s who of California punk, spearheaded by songwriter Nathan Williams. Their music consists of sun-soaked blasts of distorted guitar and incredibly infectious hooks, all informed by a psychedelic-slacker mindset. This kind of sound has unfortunately been misused by many bands in recent years who mistakenly think that having a chilled-out, slacker image gives them leeway to make disjointed music. Wavves usually crafts albums of complete consistency, and with Afraid of Heights, the songs are much more hit-and-miss.
Afraid of Heights dials back the noise a bit from its predecessor, King of the Beach, and this serves the album well in some cases. Tracks such as “Dog” and “I Can’t Dream” trade in the fuzzed-out guitars and manic drums for chiming bells and jangly acoustic guitars. These songs put much more in the hands of Williams’ songwriting abilities and are some of the best the band has produced to date.
The loud sound that the band has usually relied on is still present on tracks such as “Sail to The Sun” and “Demon to Lean on” but many of the other songs fall flat in a struggle between loud and soft. Songs such as “Lunge Forward” and “Paranoid” seem to never really draw on Williams’ ability to write an incredible melody, or really make up for it by exploding into all-out punk.
There isn’t much more to say about Afraid of Heights. I kept trying to return to it but found the same songs to be rewarding with a lot of filler in between. Wavves fans will definitely be able to pick out the gems on their first listen, and those unfamiliar with the band would be better off listening to King of the Beach. As a Wavves fan I desperately wanted Afraid of Heights to be the album of my summer, but only some songs are worth a repeated listen.
