For The Record: Waves - Afraid of Heights

Punk rock may never die – and it is certainly still alive today – but punk rockers eventually grow up. Way out in southern California, where burnout skaters have been churning out snotty noise rock cuts drenched in distorted reverb and don’t-give-a-f*** demeanors with steady consistency over the last five years, there’s certainly a tiny window where do-it-yourself bands with poetically void yet bluntly direct lyrics on substance abuse and hating everything can be taken seriously without a sense of cynicism.

So how does Nathan Williams, lead singer and brain child of bedroom-project-turned-full-fledged rock band Wavves, respond to getting old, moving out of his parents’ house and achieving some legitimate critical acclaim on his last LP? By releasing Afraid of Heights, his musically polished fourth album and his most intimately honest one yet.

The fact that a punk album would be touted as “honest” should hardly be surprising – the whole punk movement is built upon frank and truthful assertions about its adherents’ twisted lives. After all, The Ramones were as sincere about craving escape through sedation as fellow SoCal skate-punk band FIDLAR is about slamming down crappy beer.

But Afraid of Heights displays a remarkable transition from a guarded defiance against the downs of life to a realization that is something like “Wow, I actually feel this pain, and it sucks.”

Take “Idiot,” a thrashing standout from Wavves’ 2010 gem King of the Beach, for example. A disturbing cackle opening the track prepares Williams to stubbornly defy his thought that “[they] laugh right behind my back” with the affirmation

“I won’t ever die/I’ll go surfing in my mind”

Now compare that to Afraid of Heights’s lead single “Demon to Lean On” in which he croons off-key about a dead romance before admitting in a towering hook “The truth is that it hurts.”

The past two years have clearly left Williams trapped in his most vulnerable mindset to date. He openly fears eternal loneliness throughout the title track, so for any sense of affection he gives into an abusive and debilitating relationship later in “Beat Me Up.”

Sure, I love the distracting non-sequiturs of past Wavves releases in which he deflected introspection with ridiculous lines (the title of 2011’s “I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl” says it all). But the earnest self-awareness on this record is so much more captivating for a broad range of listeners, particularly disillusioned college sophomores.

Musically, what the album gains in stylistic accessibility is slightly counteracted by some losses in the essential character that is Wavves. The first thing you’ll notice – other than the strange but sparkly opening 41 seconds –  is that they actually have bass lines, which were virtually nonexistent on killer tracks like 2010’s harmoniously abrasive “Post Acid” and literally nonexistent in the electromagnetic fuzz of 2008 tracks à la “Side Yr On.”

Williams’s guitar, while still louder than the majority of recent palatable Lo-Fi rock, is comparably channeled in Afraid of Heights. His recognizable twang is replaced with denser yet rather typical melodic riffs.

That’s not to say I don’t like it, I only mean that if you prefer the aesthetic of older Wavves, you may be disappointed.

A wider access to studio gear also led to indulgences like “Mystic” and “Everything Is My Fault,” which could (or, rather, should) have been avoided.

Nonetheless, Wavves take the obvious cues from King of the Beach’s strengths and apply them to the familiar “Gimme a Knife” and instant winner “Sail to the Sun.” They haven’t forgotten how to be a punk band just yet.
T

hough I’ve been fairly critical of the album’s shortcomings, Afraid of Heights is one of my favorite releases of the year thus far.

Aggressive yet approachable, somewhere in that no man’s land between B+ and A-, it’s perfect for Midd kids looking to foray into the modern punk scene.
.