Album Review: Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
By Maria Lubanovic, Contributor
[Polyvinyl; 2016]
Rating: 5.5/10
Key Tracks: “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids,” “Spin the Dial”
Beach Slang’s new record A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings is exactly what it promises to be. Said to be the spiritual descendants of The Replacements, they bring a punk rock sound that our adolescence dreamed of: it’s an angsty punk album.
This album is characterized by hammering guitar chords, dramatic shouting vocals, and themes of carrying on, which is made immediately obvious in the first track “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids.” Long story short, it’s a banger. It’s a song that could have been just a great single, the song that reaches out to our teenage feelings, an ode to that song that may have literally saved us. It’s opening lines are meant to signify the whole album, singing “Play it loud, play it fast / Play me something that will always last / Play it soft, play it quiet / Play me something that might save my life…” It’s by far the best song on the album.
“Spin the Dial” has a simple but well executed guitar solo and thumping bass line which makes the track stand out, along with self-loathing lyrics, talking about how he is too drunk to even turn the radio off, hence, “Spin the Dial.” It’s a reminder to keep pushing through even when nothing feels worse than right now, so there is an understanding between the band and their young audience. The first song is probably the best of the whole album, unfortunately. It’s followed up by “Atom Bomb,” with the very simple shouting chorus of “I’m an atom bomb tick-tick-ticking” repeated over and over again. The song is a measly two minutes, and is overall disappointing. “Warpaint,” the last song on the album, is equally unfortunate. In a track that should have had a bigger impact, the best part of the song happens in the last 30 second of the 2 minutes and 40 second song.
The themes of adolescence and being an outcast are consistent and rolling through the album. It’s an album of punk anthems. It’s that simple. It’s relatable. A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings is just Beach Slang trying to trigger your adolescent punk phase.
