Wavves ‘V’

Words by Keith Hadad

San Diego’s Wavves are back with polished sheen and high energy on their new album, V.

From start to finish, the entire album is completely filled with catchy hooks, snappy rhythms and sugary peppiness. Any pop-rock fan could find themselves mindlessly nodding along or dancing to every track on this album, but especially “Pony” and “All The Same.”

The music here has whining yet saccharine vocals (with surprisingly disgruntled lyrics), fast drumming and a clean, careful production job, which makes each song practically sparkle. However, the guitar sound on the album is a major stand out. Buzzing, sparking, and always filtered through some degree of fuzziness, the guitar here is so enjoyable that it makes one want a separate release of just the album’s isolated guitar tracks.

The real highlight track from V is “Cry Baby.” Again, the guitar work buzzes like a swarm of angry locusts and the speedy drumming also features a fuzzy, distorted quality to it under a blanket of reverberated effects, which pulls the song into hallucinogenic territory.

For fans of poppy tunes with angst-ridden lyrics, V might be a quick favorite this year.