Wave Break throw themselves into the fire.

Last spring, New Jersey band Wave Break dropped “Spark,” the first single from Ignite//Decay, out today. “Spark,” “Call Me Cynical” and now “Embers” gave us a pretty good taste of how Wave Break has grown in the past couple of years having gone from one woman band to four piece but now we have more of a complete picture.

While I did quite enjoy both “Call Me Cynical” and “Spark” individually they stand much stronger in full context. Usually, I don’t really want to hear track one before an official release but “Cynical’s” fade-in opening, and huge instrumentation make it a great intro choice. Whereas “Spark” has a more optimistic outlook on the lyrical themes and is a nice toss up later on. If you had not heard track one and instead came from final single “Embers” then hearing it as track two must really be a treat.


At five tracks and only around fifteen minutes I’m quite impressed with how varied Ignite//Decay is as an EP. “Call Me Cynical,” as said above, has large-scale riffs and production and feels very modern alternative. The following “couple of tracks are a prog and pop punk brew and allow us a map to the bands these four are looking back to for influence. “Spark” feels snug yet radically different, this one is much more pop punk motivated, has infectious rock melodies and have an instrumental you really have to stand up for.


The titular themes of the EP, ignition as drive, and decay as burnout, are all well laid out in sequence. The first two tracks talk about confidence, specifically in defense of adversaries but then give way to feeling a pressure to keep momentum. “Lost in Limbo” is the most telling of Kelly’s headspace conceiving these ideas; her melodies are more distressed and nearly every other line is some form of self-depreciation. “Spark” follows and is a beacon of hope among it all. Still, I think the track which gets me the most is “Wither Away.” Here Kelly expresses worry of falling out of relevancy, something I can certainly understand but feels silly just having listened to this in its completed form. Wave Break is not a new band but they are fresh in the eyes of an audience who only now have this EP and a cover to go off of how they play as a unit. Everyone who creates worries about burning out, but I think for now Wave Break are only getting started, I have no worry of them keeping the flames alive.


Stream Ignite//Decay

"Embers" can be heard on the AsterTracks Spotlight playlist

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The BRAT review

Image
Oh my gosh, Claudia AsterTracks got a review out less than four months after the album is out! In all seriousness, I’ve been sitting on this review for a bit. It always feels weird to post long reviews about huge pop albums being an indie blog. Sometimes they’re just too long for MusicBoard though, so this one fit here. In spite of being gay, formerly terminally online and generally a fan of modern-day pop, I have actually never liked an entire Charli xcx project. I remember a very awkward conversation with an ex once after she found out I find it very hard to get to the end of even the twelve and a half minutes of Vroom Vroom. In spite of all of this I still want to stay current and know what albums are coming out, so I gave BRAT a try and I’m sort of blown away, I absolutely love this one. Something I noticed just minutes into BRAT is how the production is so bare and yet also feels so club ready . Opening track “360’ s ” beat is only about seven notes total with barely a drum...
Read more

Review: Get Off the Internet by Eliminate released via Create Music Group

Image
Sometimes you’re just here for the features. After a bit of a dry spell for me album wise, it was the debut album by dubstep artist Nathan Merrill, better known as Eliminate, which finally got me out of my seat. I’ll be honest, I came here solely because I saw Frost Children and I Set My Friends on Fire on the track list but was pleasantly surprised by the entire record. I had no perception of genre or who this artist was going into it. While I’m not usually a rave girl this is presented in a way where you don’t really have to be to appreciate what’s going on. There are a lot of nice, thought-out moments of downplay which don’t feel overblown or like they’re using cheap shots to make them memorable. It’s all just very real and expressive and most of the time it conveys this without words. The progression and sequencing is all very natural as well, pretty much all of these songs could be used as singles, but they also go hand in hand cohesively. I know I likely sound a little cynical to...
Read more

Review: analysis/paralysis by Four Year Strong released via Pure Noise

Image
Four Year Strong is a band who has always meant a lot to me growing up in New England. While I Specifically spent my adolescence in RI, Worcester was only a forty-minute ride and most of the shows I attended were out there. I'm less online now, but I have a feeling I know the consensus on this record isn't very hot. Being an over twenty-year-old easycore band in a time where scene bands are nostalgic acts can't be easy. But to be honest I quite enjoyed this one. Analysis paralysis as a record has a lot harder an edge than 2020's Brain Pain . The hardcore elements were never really missing from the Four Year Strong formula, but on this record songs like "aftermath/afterthought" are actual moshable moments, complete with a full breakdown, a lot of intensity and a guitar pedal like a buzzsaw. A part of me wonders if a band like this needs to be put on an indie music blog. I know lately we've shied away from this, but there's talks behind the scenes to ...
Read more