Beach Slang

The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City

Written by: PP on 25/10/2020 02:50:33

I don't think I've ever witnessed as spectacular an implosion of a band as what happened to Beach Slang over the last two years. Two brilliant full-lengths and two spectacular EPs were fueled by the kind of vigour and electrifying bond few bands can achieve, where it felt like this band could do no wrong; they'd just keep delivering masterpieces for the foreseeable future that captured raw emotion mixed with punk rock in near-perfect fashion.

And then it all collapsed. Internal disagreements split up the creative forces in the band, leaving behind only an alcoholized James Alex lending his voice and his guitar to the Beach Slang sound, but without the dynamic, nostalgia-driven punk ethos that was always the driving force behind their success. I’m just another drunk in another bar murdering songs on a dead guitar.", he sings on "Let It Ride", and that's how their third album "The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City" feels like in its essence. It's about as insulting as a Beach Slang album could become in our wildest dreams, a caricature of its origins, now converted into a cheesy rock'n'roll version of some hazy glory that's too distant to remember properly. What happened to the punk rock base?

Basically, the album sounds like Alex tried to glue together a few session musicians, retrying the same formula through writing the same songs on the surface as on the past two albums, but without the infectious passion and spirit of the old albums. As much as he'd probably like to create Beach Slang in his mirror image as his band, the fact is that Beach Slang was a product of Ruben Gallego, Ed Mcnulty just as much as it was his.

Without the dynamic interplay of this trio, what's left sounds like a firework that fizzed off instead of exploded, leaving behind a disappointing record that saves itself from disaster through "Kicking Over Bottles" and perhaps "Let It Ride". Otherwise, songs like "Stiff" are just cringe, not to mention the anonymous "Tommy In The 80s" or the lackadaisical "Born To Raise Hell", or the overall self-deprecating hatred like "Did you come to watch me choke...again?" permeating the whole record.

The fact is, we were all huge Beach Slang fans for their ability to patch together lyrics about heartbreak with punk rock melodies inspired by The Replacements and Jawbreaker. This record? A sad, cliché rock'n'roll record without an ounce of originality and, most of all, lacking in good songs to convince the listener otherwise. It's such a shame, because Beach Slang was really onto something special on their 2015 debut. I don't expect a band can recover from this.

4

Download: Let It Ride, Kicking Over Bottles
For the fans of: The Replacements, Jawbreaker
Listen: Facebook

Release date 10.01.2020
Bridge 9 Records

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