The Daily Spin, October 6
The Neighbourhood | Wiped Out!
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Wiped Out! (2015)
Artist: The Neighbourhood
Link:
You ever come back to an album that you loved years ago? Not one of those albums you fell out with for any sort of negative reason, or because the artist turned out to be kinda wack, but through the gradual erosion that time brings to everyone eventually. It’s one of those things we reckon with in moments small and large every day, I think, but every once in a while I find myself in a moment like this where I realize “holy shit, it’s been years” followed by “where the hell did the time go?”
Wiped Out! is, if you ask me, the best of what the Neighbourhood have accomplished as a complete record - though the obvious arena-filler exists on an earlier record with ‘Sweater Weather’, the group absolutely nails that vibe throughout, keeping with the sleepy beach feeling that has become entirely characteristic of the group’s work.
It’s remarkably consistent, the pared-down feeling sticking around and the sort of cloudy southern California echo persistent to the end - and though it doesn’t always land on both feel, and it does drag a little long, I also find myself loving it, a reminder of times long past me now.
The strength of this album lies in the moments where it does bleed a little bit of that air, suffocating you with the sound and the anger, whipcord tension, lean and snarling guitars that creep outside of the confinement of the song to push the boundaries of what I knew the group to be. It’s a change of pace that works brilliantly in small doses, and culminating in the fantastic ‘RIP 2 My Youth’ is a delightful way to bring the album’s concept full-circle.
Rating: 9.2/10
Best Tracks: RIP 2 My Youth; Cry Baby; The Beach
Worst Tracks: Wiped Out!