Wavves: King Of The Beach

Wavves
King Of The Beach
Fat Possum Records [2010]









Fire Note Says: Wavves storms back with a vengeance!

Album Review:
I don't think many people expected this album anytime soon after all the issues Nathan Williams experienced after his critically loved sophomore record Wavvves [2009] took off. There was a public breakdown, a tour cancellation, a fight with a drummer and some public backlash that made some believe Wavves was over. Well guess what? King Of The Beach is Williams redemption! His third album finds him cleaning up his distorted sound a bit and expanding his one man show with the addition of Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes from the late Jay Reatard band. He also grabbed big time producer Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Hives, Camper Van Beethoven), which definitely helped cultivate his improved songwriting and steer this record into one of the best indie releases of the year. Where before Wavves would bury any type of hook deep into the noise, King Of The Beach exploits his talent for memorable moments and finds the distortion taking more of a back seat and letting the songs true rock components attack the listener. The highlight point to note is that Wavves has not taken any steps backward and instead has jumped one giant leap forward as King Of The Beach hits punk chords, finds perfect indie rhythms, contains power pop catchiness and shines an even bigger light on a talent that most thought was extinguished about this time last year!

Key Tracks: "King Of The Beach", "Linus Spacehead", "Post Acid"

Bands With Similar Fire:
Male Bonding
The Clean
Nirvana

Wavves: Wavvves [Fire Note Review 3/13/09]

Official Wavves Website
Wavves MySpace
Wavves Facebook
Fat Possum Records

-Reviewed by Christopher Anthony