Album Review :: Warpaint - Heads Up

Warpaint

Heads Up

September 23 2016 (Rough Trade)

8/10

Words: Alison Mack

Languid and woozy, the third studio album by the LA indie rock girls Warpaint is filled with plenty of addictive touches and melodic hooks in its 52 minutes of varyingly textured love songs.

Taking a new approach on this outing of writing either singularly or in pairs, 'Heads Up' strikes at both the experimental as well as the Warpaint familiars. Bringing producer Jacob Bercovici back, they debuted less single 'New Song' showing their alt-powerpop cool, giving an indication of what else might be to come.

With the likes of 'By Your Side', which envelops an almost industrial sound against whispered vocals, the six-minute 'So Good' enriched by that enigmatic bassline of Jenny Lee Lindberg, and the lushly driven, dark wave notes of 'The Stall', the album's first half feels easy and like they are coasting into the second part on the winds of a jam session.

'Don’t Let Go' ushers in haunting acoustic guitars in this standout mid-tempo number, while 'Dre' - in tribute to the Dr. rapper - sees their R&B and rap influences interrupt with a splash of reverbed vocals and spacey rhythms. After taking the title track's echoing piano opening that burgeons out with a touch of funk and post-punk, the album closes on strains of acoustic guitars  and the sound of rain on 'Today Dear', as Emily Kokal's expresses the chilling refrain, “I saw my blood drawn out, saw my flood run dry / I have no fear, my dear / Today, no moment will pass me by.” With 'Heads Up' Warpaint mark the return of a newly reinvigorated sounding band.

Album Review :: Beach Fatigue - Beach Fatigue

Beach Fatigue

Beach Fatigue

March 4 2016 (Kool Girl Records)

7.5/10

Words: Richard O'Hagan

You might remember this Welsh four-piece as Heavy Petting Zoo, who put out the punky ‘Isabelle’ as a split single with fellow countrymen The Joy Formidable early last year. Now they’re back with a better – and arguably less pervy – name, and a debut album.

The sound remains very much the same, though. In fact, ‘Isabelle’ makes an appearance here, as does the first HPZ release ‘Crash’. The best track by far, though, is the Beach Fatigue debut ‘Drunken Grrrls’, echoing perfectly the Riot Grrl movement of twenty years before, spinning a tale of happy, violent, drunken nights out, but then throwing in a layer of musical sophistication that the likes of Huggy Bear not only failed to achieve, but positively eschewed.

The violence reoccurs on ‘Cut Throat’, but in a darker form as Amy Zachariah’s leaping vocals pull together a tale of infidelity, culminating in the refrain “You! Me! Her! Outside!”. Indeed, the whole album finds its inspiration in the seedier, darker side of life, be it ‘Crusade’ with its references to begging for money, to the “Ah, what the fuck?!” exclamation punctuating ‘Carousel’, all laid over a pounding rhythm reminiscent of The Slits and Bow Wow Wow at their best.

In all, this is a welcome merging of those old school musical influences, modern musical technology and a brutalist approach to songwriting. In some respects the album is a couple of tracks too long, because the whole makes for punishing listening – but then maybe that’s the idea.