Chewing Pine

Wavves – Wavvves (De Stijl, 2009)

We’re about a week deep into the new year and this disc is and will continue to be the most checked, revered and discussed album. Whether it’ll matter in 2010 is another issue all together.

The dude that is Wavves seems to be consistent amidst his punkier compositions. The slow numbers, “Jetplane (Staying on a)” perhaps, finds the limited vocal and melodic palette accentuated by the space left in the track. Wavves is not a crooner and that’s why “No Hope Kids” ends up working out a bit better. But even here, the frailty of Wavves’ musicality is apparent.

Following that song is one of the numerous sound collage/avant-noise pieces that, if used sparingly, could prove an ingenious way to connect songs. Instead, it just allows listeners to figure out that the dude that is Wavves likes to get high – but we shouldn’t blame him.

At around thirty minutes, there seems to be a lot of wasted time. And Wavvves would really have been an incredible mini-LP or series of singles, but as a whole, the tracks aren’t assembled in a way that warrants all the hype. His writing covering the sun, goths and skating/surfing obviously comes from a goofy personal place and that’s why those seem to stand out.

But considering that in the last few months Wavves has put out this disc, a tape, another full length and a single if and when he figures out how to harness the thing inside him that drives his art, I’ll be listening.

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