3 out of 5

Label: Caroline

Produced by: Daniel Rey

I’m going to cheat a little bit here, because I bought and listened to 13 Unlucky Numbers first – one of my favorite pop punk albums of all time – and then tracked down What Else Can We Do, leading me to only really be able to review it in comparison.

And Wax’s debut disc is, definitely, the same band, featuring the skate punk slacker vocals and fast-paced “clean” riffage with blazing basslines, but it is… not the Wax of 13 Unlucky Numbers, save a few tracks where they tap into the same energy (opener Snappin’ Away, Hush). But even then, this is the less inventive and mature of the two discs, not quite able to push the pop into 13’s slightly weirder, indie directions, and the lyrics really just super, super general, to the point of not having much meaning. The album rocks, and has energy to spare, but as it ticks on through its 11 tracks, instead of opening up track by track to offer new views on the band’s sound, it becomes sort of more generic and predictable.

The cheat is that, without their following to which to compare, this would still be really good. Wax plays with this kind of sloppy, but skillful abandon that was rarely matched in their scene, and What Else Can We Do’s immaturity carries a load of promise with it: you can tell there’s room to grow. And before the charm of the enthused sprint of the album’s first half dissipates, it really does register as a top tier listen… until the samey-ness of the latter half starts to wear a bit, making one’s ears more critical during return listens.

I go back to What Else Can We Do on occasion, because there are good tunes and we only have so much Wax music, but it also just gets me hyped to switch over to 13, which then ends up staying in my player for the longrun.