REVIEW: “Afraid of Heights” pays homage to Gen-X

Pessimism runs deep in Wavves’ upcoming album “Afraid of Heights,” as singer/guitarist Nathan Williams begs for someone to send him an angel while a gun is being held to his head.

Catchy, pop-inspired choruses, like in the song “Demon to Lean On,” tell us that Williams, while singing about dying as the same loser, has not yet grown nihilistic enough to stop from banging out punk rock riffs. “Afraid of Heights” becomes itself a demon to lean on — an instinctive killer that doesn’t leave much room for optimistic thought but leaves you with an urge to set fire to the closest thing next to you. Demons aren’t just to lean on, though. They’re there telling Williams to let it all loose as he screams away his own personal anxieties.

“Sail to the Sun” kicks the album off with the strongest track and the album never slows down after it. California sun tinges the edges of “Sail to the Sun” with its chorus that grabs you and rips you apart while lazily asking if you’d like to get high. The beauty in Wavves’ is its apathetic nature. The band members don’t care about what’s going on around them, but have so much energy that they’re forced out of their shell and onto the stage, kicking and screaming the whole way. Like craggy rocks grinding against the pounding ocean, Williams’ guitar leaves no room for rational decision, allowing you to unconsciously begin pounding your head into a wall while singing along.

“I’m ugly, you’re boring/I can’t act like I care” he sings. Wavves’ slacker aesthetic echoes the similar themes of alienation, despair and consumption by rage that Generation-X and fellow punk- rocker Kurt Cobain screamed about. These similar feelings span across the generations, a testament to the universal nature of rage, self-loathing and boredom. When Williams sings “I’ll always be on my own,” it’s the battle cry of fear and apathy that shows we’ve grown up too fast for our own good.

“Afraid of Heights” — released March 26 — is easily the best new album of the month, and quite possibly the most thematically cohesive and hardest rocking of the year. With suntanned pessimism and apathy that’s satisfyingly self-destructive and fun, Wavves effortlessly kicks a** while sailing to the sun and dying out just the way its members lived—uninterested about the rest of the world. Turn it up to deafening volumes, get yourself a tattoo and remember not to care because nothing can bother you under that California sun.

Some tracks to listen to are “Sail to the Sun,” “Demon to Lean On” and “Afraid of Heights.”