By now Wavves's discarded most of the scrappiness that made Nathan Williams a readymade Pitchfork darling circa '08. Gone are the drone-on experiments, the shitcan production, and most of the frantic guitarwork, now Wavves takes its cues from the similarly-themed Surfer Blood, making tuneful, swooping crunchrock in the Weezer* vein, with streaks of Green Day sneering and Unicorns seeking. It's a perfectly pretty, fun little album, but much of the personality's been airbrushed out, the lyrics reduced to generalisms like "I'll always be on my own!" and "everything is my fault!".
Every once in a while Wavves peeks out from behind the mask, say on the frenetic clap-clap streaking of Beat Me Up, on the whirring frenzy of Lunge Forward, but for the most part it sounds designed to capitalize on some bizarre sweet spot of twentysomethings who think Weezer hasn't been good since the Red Album 3/5
*Williams is a self-professed Weezer fan and he really goes too far on the title track that swerves cringeworthily close with its "woke up, found Jesus" line
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