Wavves – Hideaway
Wavves head back to their roots on their seventh album, serving up another beach-ready record of indie-punk
As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. On their seventh studio album, Nathan Williams and the Wavves gang certainly aren’t looking to complicate things. In fact, Hideaway ultimately goes back to basics in many ways, with Williams recording it in a shed in the backyard of his parental home, and releasing on Fat Possum Records, the home of a couple of the band’s early releases.
As such, their much-loved SoCal surf/indie-punk rock sound serves more like the record’s bread-and-butter than the building blocks for anything more overly adventurous. Sure, it’s a tried and tested approach, but nothing feels uninteresting nor unimaginative as a result.
The backyard-borne, rough‘n’ready, raw production is front and centre throughout, with Thru Hell and the title track notably testing the limits of Williams' unpolished vocals. The resulting ‘punkness’ of the album is thus particularly significant and tastes like a bitter twist of lemon to the clean, crisp Beach Boys inspiration found across its nine melodically sweet singalong choruses. Wavves are no stranger to this smooth-to-rugged combination, and on Hideaway, the mix feels like a familiar cocktail recipe that mostly hits all the right notes.
Listen to: Help is on the Way, Thru Hell, Hideaway