Album Review: Beach Slang ‘A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings’

Philly is known for two tasty exports, the first being cream cheese and the second being punk rockers Beach Slang. They’ve been on a crazy trip this year with the release of their debut album garnering loads praise and allowing them to tour the world and even play Splendour In The Grass just a couple of months back. Their sophomore release ‘A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings’ is primed for release later this month, but we managed to get an early whiff of the youth-orientated album.

Distorted vocals are paired alongside distorted power chords to open up Future Mixtape For The Art Kids.  The bass and drums crash in loudly, lifting the intensity to true Beach Slang levels. This in-your-face generation anthem is a solid start to the album, and a track we can already see going absolutely mental live.

The fellas dive head first into Atom Bomb, which literally explodes with frenetic guitar and furious drumming. Instant Tony Hawk punk feels are felt in this track, we can see plenty kickflip’s and noseslide’s being nailed to this track. Fuzzy riffs are shredded the over the repeating line “I’m an atom bomb/tick-tick-ticking!”.

“It still holds the same Beach Slang punch, but it just doesn’t quite hit like a KO.”

Spin The Dial features a slower pace whilst still keeping the distorted vocal tone. It’s a welcomed change, as it turns down the intensity previously faced in the first two tracks. Dynamics increase for the chorus, presenting the humble line “I was born at the bottom/but I’ll never be alone”. Art Damage contains a super-catchy riff, but there’s not a lot that changes in this track. It still holds the same Beach Slang punch, but it just doesn’t quite hit like a KO.

Hot Tramps leans more towards the alternative-punk style, with less distortion on the guitars making the melody a little warmer. The music seems to mix with the vocals into one mush of sound a times, but overall it somehow pulls through the other side relatively well. An instrumental rock-jam of rocking riffs and crashing cymbals finishes out the track strongly. It’s around here that its beginning to feel like this is more of a lyrical, story-telling release then a album for the band themselves.

Punks In A Disco Bar shows passionate vocal work from James Alex, while the guitars provides a solid punk melody. Layers cut in and out through sections, creating diversity within the well-balanced track. Surfy-punk vibes are emphasised through the melody and rhythm of Wasted Daze of Youth, which showcases whispered vocals. Sentimental romantic lines, “I still taste you in the ash/of every cigarette you kill/Have they dragged you back to life? If not yet they never will”, hit the heart a little too heavy.

“They set out to write this album for the very teenagers that listened to and loved their first, and we guarantee they’ll love the lyrics of this one even more.”

The Perfect High uses super fuzzy guitars and again the whisper-type vocals, to produce yet another track that will be loved by all the in-love teeny boppers. The drumming shines in the instrumental section, which takes up the second half of the track. The section escalates in sound and texture before thinning out for the outro.

What you can expect from Beach Slang’s sophomore album is exactly what’s in its title, ‘A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings’, and that’s what they intended it to be when they started writing it. Alex put it perfectly himself when he said in his interview with AAA, “it just feels like a Beach Slang record. Its evolved on levels, but it hasn’t taken any wild turns”.

Tracks like Atom Bomb and Wasted Daze of Youth show the potential the band has in the punk scene, but there’s nothing outrageous from the rest of the album. They set out to write this album for the very teenagers that listened to and loved their first, and we guarantee they’ll love the lyrics of this one even more.

Read our recent interview with James Alex from Beach Slang HERE