Wallows dive deep on ‘More’
For eight years now, alt-pop band Wallows has delivered a consistent output of musings on suburban adolescence, sun tans and 1980s horror films (twice over). Arriving nearly a year since the release of their third full-length LP Model, an accompaniment piece arrives in the form of More, a seven-song EP that does not reinvent the sonic wheel, so to speak, but refines the group’s sound across moods and melodies.
In Gen Z’s collective consciousness,
Wallows first established itself as a group that best captured the gloom of suburb, or suburb-adjacent, adolescence through songs like “Are You Bored Yet?” and “Only Friend” on their 2019 debut album Nothing Happens. Since then, the group has established their unique musicality with each passing release. Composed of singer and guitarist Dylan Minnette, bassist and singer Braeden Lemasters and drummer Cole Preston, they are a band that employs their mood-driven music to convey specific emotions and meticulously craft aesthetics a bit more successfully than your average SoCal trio.
Nothing Happens explored pre-pandemic suburban desolation through evocative songs that lent themselves to scenes of moonlit playgrounds, the cool aluminum of high school bleachers and emptied backyard swimming pools. Their 2021 follow up Tell Me That It’s Over did less to place the listener into crystalline pictures and scenes, but made use of tighter and brighter pop melodies. Last year’s Model remains the band’s easiest listen, with breezy summertime cuts contrasted by blaring guitar shrieks.
More, hence its title, is a continuation of sorts to Model. Three of the seven tracks — namely “Deep Dive,” “Not Alone” and “Your New Favorite Song” — were included on seven-inch records in some limited editions of last year’s LP, but have remained relatively out of circulation until their inclusion on the new EP. Of the seven total tracks, it’s these three that are most effective. “Deep Dive” opens with Minnette’s hushed delivery over pretty guitar strums before drums cut through and Lemasters contributes adlibs to favor Minnette’s chorus. “You know I never wanna leave you stranded/Not even if the tide is rising on us,” the duo sing on the song’s airy bridge that flutters with Preston’s dream-like piano and synthesizer. Cascading guitar plucks interrupted by the loud clang of drums round out the song, making it the kind of track that seems to be predestined for watching the summertime sun descend toward the horizon.
Minnette’s quiet voice whispers across “Your New Favorite Song” — an audaciously named track that deploys the sweet sound of saxophones. (Which is something that pop music could stand to incorporate more, for some of the genre’s greatest feats have boasted the woodwind instruments’ powerful blare.) The song’s flowing melody combined with Minnette’s sweet hum paints a languorous, hazy scene of warm candlelit rooms and long gazes into relaxed eyes. “Not Alone” opens the EP with an electric buzz of a farfisa organ that assists Lemasters’ evocative lyricism (“I got pictures in my head workin' overtime/See the shattered face of you through the blinds”). Halfway through the track, Minnette takes over and the song’s melody slows, pivoting to a softer piano pulse before both the lead singer’s voice and instrumentation rev back up to a howl.
The melodies and lyrics that the trio highlight across the EP may not read as particularly revolutionary, but it is through these devices that the group’s talent for conveying specific moods and unlocking meticulously crafted vignettes in the listener’s mind appear refined as ever. By combining the defining features of their past work — aesthetic consciousness, tight melodies and user-friendly compositions — More is a culmination of their finest talents, and if the band is lucky, might just be home to one’s “new favorite song” after all.
Photo by @cloudyytots
