Self-defeated Surfy Slush Pays Homage to Quintessential California
“Tonight if I died…you wouldn’t care. You want me to love you, but why would I care? I’m so alone…and you’ll never know how much I loved you; but why would you care?”
Given two guesses as to who those lyrics belong to, if you initially thought Morrissey, that guess wouldn’t count against you. Nathan Williams of Wavves’ offshoot Spirit Club (which also consists of brother Joel Williams and Andrew Caddick) has released the follow up to their self-titled release from 2015 called Slouch and released under Williams’ label Ghost Ramp records.
Slouch kicks off with “Fast Ice Intro,” which is 54 seconds of crooning “wheeeoooo”s layered over tinkling keys in a twisted lullaby, a very appropriate indication of what this 12-track effort will bring, before immediately diving into “Fast Ice,” the surf-pop emo track that includes the aforementioned lyrics.
“Your Eyes Tell Lies” is impeccably clean and generously borrows vocal cues from the Wilsons with soaring harmonies, a slight fuzz, and vibrant, island-inspired tones that bounce off the walls and bookend the track beautifully. If you took a Beach Boys song and put it through a Nirvana strainer, you’d have “Your Eyes Tell Lies.”
“Metal Dream” is distorted and rambling, a minute and a half of wailing, wandering guitar that may or may not live in the Scorpions’ basement of discarded cues. It’s a rather emotionally packed interlude, which is a feat considered its simplicity and the small amount of space it takes up on the album. “That’s My Curse” is another falsetto imbued, tone happy and harmonic track full of melancholy surf and solid layering—sort of like an evil twin of “Kocomo.” “That’s My Curse” could be found on a Mrs. Magician album with its bratty, accepted defeatism, slight sneer and ’60s-soaked surf.
“Broken Link” takes a cue from Wavves with fast guitar with heavy distortion, clicky percussion and generous synths, while “Lately I Haven’t Been Sleeping” is a lovelorn ballad that climbs with synths before an immediate payoff of a downward spiral of ghostly harmonies, that amounts to a waltzy fever dream that anyone who’s lost a relationship can relate to. “Needful Things” is simple, instrument-less and cavernous—Williams croons over a barbershop build, bursting with emotion and a twinge of ’80s insolence.
Slouch touches on a myriad of musical cornerstones but weaves them together in a relatively seamless way: backed with the unmistakable Nathan Williams-ishness entirely, but also maybe a little too indebted to its predecessors. Slouch couldn’t exist without the Beach Boys, but the same can be said for a host of Spirit Clubs’ peers. So if you do it, do it right—Slouch does it right and then some.
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