ALBUM: Beach Slang – A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings

Starting with the same energy you can find on their first album, The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel like Us (2015), ‘Future Mixtapes For The Art Kids’ breeds a cheek to cheek grin and a weird sense of nostalgia. After seeing Beach Slang on numerous occasions and consuming a lot of their back catalogue, including the solid EP compilation Broken Thrills (2015), they are definitely a group heavily influenced by cult alt rock and punk acts of yester year.

Like before, The Replacements continue to have a firm place in main man James Alex’ heart. And it’s because of this love for albums such as Tim (Replacements – 1985), 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (Jawbreaker – 1994) and a healthy dose of Smiths material, that brings out this warm fuzzy feeling all over my body as it’s so palpable in the Philadelphia band’s music. Granted, the music here isn’t much different, some harsh ‘n heavy guitars hugged by vocals of fast living and gut-wrenching heartbreak, yet it’s the attitude that thankfully stays the same. Humble yet proud, songs like ‘Spin The Dial’ and ‘Punks In A Disco Bar’ feed a craving for positivity and freedom to be an individual.

This album is filled with fantastic hooks and catchy choruses, ‘Atom Bomb’ in particular is a stonker of a tune; though it’s criminally short. The lyrics drip with a youthful anger and ignorance yet somehow project a maturity. You wouldn’t think it would be possible for Beach Slang to mature in a sense because they often play up to this young, punk aesthetic. However, every word comes across even more sincere and seemingly more relevant to an act one year older, not harping back to experiences once had many years ago. Ultimately making it more interesting from a fan’s point of view, it’s as if we’re all growing up together and concluding our life events through the loud, punky nuggets of joy heard here.

Despite not being as bright and airy in terms of production, the band again produce excellent performances and Alex in particular pens some incredible songs. If you’re only gonna listen to one song from the album, please make it ‘Wasted Daze Of Youth’. It’s incredible how every line sounds like it was taken from another goliath in the pop punk/punk rock genre – I can definitely see this becoming a crowd favourite in the future. It perfectly encapsulates what this band are about, sharing good times with friends and having a very loud and drunk sing along and I cannot fucking wait.

A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings is out now via Big Scary Monsters.

Connor Ryan