Everything just sounds fuller and more cleanly produced than the ragtag recordings that made King Of The Beach an indie hit. Hill brings out the artist in Williams, who no longer seems satisfied with just good enough.
'Afraid Of Heights' is a far stronger and much more accomplished effort, sounding more like an apposite album than any of Wavves' back catalogue.
Hardly revelatory and moderately inconsistent, but packed full of reckless exuberance and fun, hyperkinetic jams to thrash around to that take only a couple of listens tops to get lodged firmly in your head.
There's less of the formless, small-scale exercises that largely made up Beach's back half; some will miss the eccentricity, but Afraid of Heights' energizing consistency makes for a fair trade.
Afraid of Heights sees mid-tempo songs become commonplace and focus placed more on harmonies and samples and textures. But, don’t mistake his musical palette refining with emotional maturity.
The nonchalant attitude Wavves approaches music-making with provides a cap to the height it can reach in terms of producing something truly excellent or groundbreaking.
These songs are catchy and fun, and will probably be a big hit at all of the boozy, druggy outdoor festivals that Waaves are destined to play this year.
It proves with Afraid of Heights, a record that, for the most part, is the sound of a band treading water.
But rather than fade into irrelevance, ‘Afraid Of Heights’ emerges three years on from ‘King Of The Beach’ as the sound of these sun-baked ne’er-do-wells getting their shit together in some style.
Some of the grimy ease that made early Wavves so exciting and unique has faded, though a number of glorious hooks remain.
He is an asshole screw-up, for better and for worse, and at his best, this record is the ballsy twisted screech of a deranged finger-biter.
Whilst Afraid Of Heights is far from a disappointment, it doesn't add anything new to Wavves cannon of interest.
Oon this slightly-too-long-at-13-tracks album, the missteps come when they stray from the tried-and-tested blueprint
Afraid of Heights does little beyond confirming the King of the Beach's abilities as a conjurer, soothing our nostalgic mourning and coming as close to anyone can to slaking our thirst for the flesh-and-blood Nirvana Future we never got to have.
Maybe lovers of '90s revival bands will find something to like here, but anyone who was into the records Wavves made before is out of luck.
Some moments I wished I skipped overall almost as much fun as KOTB.
Favorite Track: Demon to Lean On
Least Favorite Track: Mystic
A very solid follow-up to arguably their best LP. It is a bit darker in tone and overall covers all of the same bases that made King of The Beach great. Wavves sound is even a bit more polished on this album but still contains some of the lofi qualities that made the early releases so good.
The production gets kinda annoying after a while. Every song sounds pretty much the same. I don't think it's objectively bad but it just kinda does the same thing a lot
Favs: Gimme a knife, Sail to the Sun
I think this album as a whole is probably my favorite release from wavves. In a wholistic view this album is Nathan's "self loathing" type of writing, and i think Wavves' strongest tracks and songwriting are shown on here with Demon to Lean On, Afraid of Heights, Gimme A Knife, Hippies is Punks, and even Sail to the Sun is a really fucking strong hook and beginning to the album. King of the beach is great and all and fun, but this album is more real to me and more relatable. I don't ... read more
1 | Sail to the Sun 3:15 | |
2 | Demon to Lean On 4:21 | |
3 | Mystic 2:23 | |
4 | Lunge Forward 2:48 | |
5 | Dog 3:10 | |
6 | Afraid of Heights 5:06 | |
7 | Paranoid 2:22 | |
8 | Cop 1:57 | |
9 | Beat Me Up 2:20 | |
10 | Everything Is My Fault 2:38 | |
11 | That's on Me 3:40 | |
12 | Gimme a Knife 2:54 | |
13 | I Can't Dream 5:13 |
#87 | / | Crack Magazine |