The Neighbourhood
Wiped Out!
Columbia Records
When โSweater Weatherโ hit radio two years back, The Neighbourhoodโs concoction of hip-hop, pop, R&B and indie rock fueled fire to their popularity as a genre-bent band capable of producing mainstream hits. The first record, I Love You., proved to be somewhat juvenile lyrically but masterful in arrangement, producing plenty of quality instrumental moments on a record that otherwise felt stained with its โdebutโ status.
For record two, the boys of The Neighbourhood havenโt entirely grown to maturity. In fact, their lyrics still fall somewhere between strongly justified (see โBaby Come Home 2โ) and lacking substance. Youโll especially notice the latter on โDaddy Issuesโ when the chorus churns out โif you were my little girl, Iโd do whatever I could do, to run away and hide with you, I love that youโve got daddy issues, and I do tooโ. The difference, this time, is that the complexity of genre-mixing that the band attempts is less jarring, and feels slightly more balanced. This plays out positively and negatively all the same. The Neighbourhood shines, again, with their arrangements. Knowing where their craft works is immensely important, evident by the sonic clarity of singles โPreyโ and โThe Beachโ. โFerrariโ stands out as it hums with post-rock bliss layered by a pop structure. Other arrangements falter. Some donโt even exist. The opener โMoment of Silenceโ is, inexcusably, exactly what the title suggests. โCry Babyโ, while remaining catchy, sounds more like a refined Backstreet Boys demo than a step in the right direction.
Itโs admirable though, that on the almost-seven-minute-long title-track, Rutherford honestly admits โIโm back and forth, I think Iโm going crazyโฆIโm hoping that Iโm never satisfiedโ. The repetition of these words calls as a statement from the band about their difficulty to settle into one sound comfortably. Thereโs nothing objectively wrong with this, of course. The Neighbourhood is playfully enjoying their lack of identity. Whether their indecisiveness is a conscious choice to showcase their versatility or comes from an inability to find common ground has yet to be determined. As a listener, however, Wiped Out! can be perfectly summed up by the formula of its title-track โ it is constantly attempting to showcase change but ends without ever reaching a satisfying conclusion.
โย Robert Defina
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE NEIGHBOURHOOD – WIPED OUT!
Robert Defina
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ONE IN THE CHAMBER – THE CABIN SESSIONS
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SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MOUNT EERIE – NIGHT PALACE
