Album: Wavvves
Artist: Wavves
Released: 2009
Rating: 3.5/5
Link: http://www.mediafire.com/d
There's two v's in the band name, three v's in the album name, and one guy in the band. Wavves (pronounced Waves) is made up of Nathan Williams, who made the entire album by playing all the instruments himself and overdubbing everything on Garageband. It's a collection of sunny surf-punk tunes about boredom, alienation, drugs, goths, and hopelessness, intentionally recorded with lots of tape-hiss, static and background noises to conceal the songs themselves.
Williams isn't the greatest guitarist, sticking mostly to playing simple three chord tunes. He does have a good ear for melody, though, which helps a lot. As a drummer, he also plays incredibly simple rhythms and is occasionally out of time with himself, but it tends to add to the punky enthusiasm of the songs. His bassplaying (when it's present and audible) just follows the guitar. His vocals feature lots of harmonies and backing vocals (he uses a lot of vocal overdubs) to get a sort of Beach Boys, summery feeling. A primitive synthesizer also pops up on one or two songs but isn't really of major importance.
The real make or break point of Wavvves for many people is going to be the production. Rather than just let the simple pop songs be, Williams has chosen to cover them all with noise and intentionally lo-fidelity recording. The guitars are massively fuzzy and distorted, the drums sound like a cardboard box, and Williams' vocals are barely understandable and often distorted. There's a constant layer of static and noise throughout the album. You'll either love or hate this production choice.
A pop album for noise fans.
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