Wavves are a deceiving band. While the beat of the music on Afraid of Heights is energetic, the lyrics reveal a dark underbelly. It’s packed full songs about wanting to die, wrapped up with a healthy dose of existentialism, with some alienation and drugs thrown in for good measure.
On their fourth release, Wavves have stepped back a couple of decades to the ’90s grunge era. With splashes of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain’s depressed lyrics and Weezer’s upbeat tempo, Afraid of Heights is a complex album.
It opens with pretty chiming church bells on ‘Sail to the Sun’, but it doesn’t take long for the surfer rock sounds to kick in and the upbeat tempo keeps the song driving through the repetitive verse and chorus about getting high. But like the rest of the album, the song’s lyrics take a dark turn mid-way through and delve into how we’ll all die and end in a grave.
‘Demon to Lean On’ is one of the best tracks on the album. Channelling some serious angst about being a loser, the band doesn’t muck around lyrically: “Holding a gun to my head, so send me an angel. Or bury me deeply instead with demons to lean on.” Against a backdrop of heavy guitars and the driving vocals, it’s a nicely crafted and catchy song.
‘Dog’ opens with a creeping bassline and repeats the same lyric throughout the song. It’s on songs like this where you can hear Kurt Cobain influences in the vocals and the dark cello overtones alluding to some deep, inner turmoil. ‘That’s on me’ also wears its Nirvana grunge influences on its sleeve, with the dark vocals and guitars exploding with a wall of sound. You can kind of imagine yourself spiraling down some dark well with Alice in Wonderland fanfare – falling, but never quite reaching the bottom.
On ‘Afraid of Heights’, there are hints of Weezer in the guitars and again, those self loathing lyrics – “I’ll always be on my own, fucked and alone.”
Afraid of Heights is one of those complex albums that reveals itself a little bit more with each listen. It can be hard to listen to at times with its depressing lyrics, but there’s not doubt the beauty of what the Wavves have managed on this album will keep listeners engaged for some time.
8/10
Reviewer: Stephanie McDonald