The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City - Beach Slang: Review
is a Philly based punk rock project of James Alex who first exploded onto the scene in 2015 with their great debut album The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. They followed it up quickly with a moderately well received sophomore record before spending a year experimenting with a quieter version of their sound under the "Quiet Slang" moniker. Now they are back with their first record of new studio material in four years and the singles took a much more classic rock inspired approach.
Review By Lavender:
The debut record from Beach Slang remains one of the most underrated rock records of this entire decade as the youthful flare frontman James Alex taps into is a consistently captivating sound. Since this record the group has slowly began to let more and more of the punk flare they once had go in favor of more conventional classic rock sounds or flat out acoustic ones, and on Heartbreak City they go even further down this path with their most conventional and comfortable record to date.
The first two singles for the record forecasted some big time classic rock influence and a number of the tracks here mirror that. Bam Rang Rang is an absolute rager filled with high energy guitar riffs and booming drums that never settles and hits great vocal refrains out of the park time and time again. Tommy In The 80s is a triumphant power ballad that sounds much more in line with the bands first record and despite the fact that it really only has one primary phase the whisper singing and walls of instrumentation are undeniably good. Usually when the tracks rock this hard they turn out great starting with Kicking Over Bottles a song that absolutely rips and explodes out of its mix with youthful energy that is exactly what I look for from Beach Slang in their best work. Let It Ride and Born To Raise Hell are both short but sweet punk rock tunes that only have one trick to pull but pull it off pretty well.
The only two songs that take this rock approach that I didn't end up enjoying were the third single Stiff and the track Sticky Thumbs. While the latter is a fine tune no part of it really stood out to me and it kind of becomes rock pastiche by the end of its runtime. Stiff on the other hand pairs some blistering guitar riffs with incredibly uneventful vocals and almost no musical development whatsoever that makes it one of the weakest tunes I've heard from Beach Slang so far.
Nobody Say Nothing is another one dimensional song that doesn't do much for me but it takes a much more ethereal and soft approach. The lyrics just don't do much of anything and it turns the song into a long and uneventful series of refrains that I found it pretty hard to latch onto. But there is a great track on the record that takes a slower approach and its the excellent closer Bar No One. The song is a long and introspective one with a number of great lyrical moments. It finds a way to be really impactful despite how stark its sonic approach is and has all the momentum the record has built up behind it as it slows to a satisfying and blissful finish. It is definitely one of the best closing tracks I've heard from the band on any of their projects and it wraps up the listening experience really well.
The Deadbeat Rang Of Heartbreak City is a raucous but inconsistent rock record that borrows a lot from the past but usually does it with a dramatic and captivating flare. At its best the record is one short blistering rock tune after another that is only interrupted a few times across the tracklist with songs that don't live up to the standard. Despite stepping further away from their original sound Beach Slang continue to sound refreshing for rock music in 2020 and are obviously a band to look out for going forward. 6/10
