Beach Slang’s new album- A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings– is just that; an explosion of feelings, somehow forgotten in the midst of growing up. The album is a thunderous ocean of indie-punk grit. It possesses the kind of underground turbulence that one would expect of a finely tuned rock and roll band. The music seeps emotion all over the floor and James Alex’s wind-blown voice is there to spread the melodic mess around even further. Each song on the album is chock full of energy, constantly revving the engine, ready to go.
Beach Slag encompasses what it means to be saved by rock and roll. With song titles like “Hot Tramp” and “The Perfect High”, their rough and tumble, deliriously eccentric music has captured the soul of what it means to be a struggling youth in the preparatory stages of coming into one’s own. What is so interesting about this album is that many of the songs are about the kids who got into Beach Slag by listening to their first album. In a sense, the songs are mini-bios, which makes the album a rather personal one. From ”Future Mixtape For The Art Kids” to “Warpaint”, the songs and their lyrics are something we can all relate to. Even if we are no longer in that angsty, teenage stage of our lives, we once were; this album sort of memorializes and romanticizes that period in our lives.
This album is a fuzzed out dream; memories fading quickly merged with ongoing adult responsibilities. James Alex’s voice is that of a great bear, scouring the woods for lost souls; soothing and gruff, sympathetic and terrifyingly real. (“Don’t be afraid to want to be alive/Knock the pills out of your teeth”) Turn up the music and fade out into rock and roll bliss.
