Label: Fat Possum Records
Released: 16th July 2021
Wavves plunge into the pools of their seventh album with an enormous splash. ‘Hideaway’ might give you the impression that they are seeking an escape and running, but the San Diego rockers are more aptly in pursuit of a respite and relief amidst chaos. It’s perhaps because of this, then, that the first few tracks on the album see them unleashing oodles of frenetic energy and ferocity – it’s a cathartic attempt to expel their barely contained fears and worry.
Frontman Nathan Williams anxiously sings of snakes and evading negative energy in his life, but there’s an assurance to it. Maybe it’s the brash, noisy nature of the tracks themselves – they’re all raging percussion and classic garage-rock guitar riffs. ‘Sinking Feeling’ feels distinctly Western-inspired, and it prompts the epiphany that the beginning stages of the album have all the tension and pent-up anguish of a battlefield. Yet, seeping through the cracks of the angsty, war-ready wall Wavves conjure up is absolute sentiment and daring. They’re unafraid to bare the inner fears bringing them down, even if they do it to a jolting, restless soundtrack.
‘The Blame’ marks a shift in the album’s trajectory. The latter half of ‘Hideaway’ gives way into a giddiness amidst the madness and anxiety. There’s a more pronounced surf-rock sound that lends the album a regenerative quality, even if the lyrics remain bristling with that worry. There are tinges of romanticism on ‘My Prize’ existing in paradoxical tandem with hatred on ‘Planting A Garden’, and it beautifully captures the hopeless disorder of the period of their lives that Wavves seek to chronicle. Yet, on ‘Caviar’, the album’s closer, they find a chance to be soothed and restored. They begin the album desperately searching for a respite and stability amongst the whirling, unpredictable world around them. As ‘Hideaway’ draws to a close, they find it and sink into its depths.
