Score: 4/5
Recapturing the smooth southern California magic of The Neighbourhood’s first album “I Love You” is an impossible task.
Luckily, it doesn’t appear the band was trying to do that with follow up “Wiped Out!”
The new sophomore LP still feels like The Neighbourhood, with the group’s signature pop, pseudo-R&B sound still present. However, there is no “Sweater Weather” on “Wiped Out!,” which may be exactly what The Neighbourhood was going for to branch out of the alternative rock-pop box.
In the two years since “Sweater Weather,” the first song the band wrote together and its biggest hit, it’s clear the group members are over it, wanting to experiment with other sounds. Being confined to the alternative rock and pop scenes was never on the itinerary.
“Wiped Out!” leans much more into the R&B world, but the lyrical content is still comparable to the group’s first album.
Much like on “I Love You,” there is no shortage of moody atmospheric love songs and angst-filled personal tracks.
The best of which, “Cry Baby,” combines all of those subjects in a melodious R&B-pop chorus. The song is the musical equivalent of palm trees and the California sun. “Cry Baby” is endlessly listenable and expresses The Neighbourhood’s knack for catchy melody.
What continues to hold The Neighbourhood together, other than brilliant instrumentation, is Jesse Rutherford’s voice. The singer’s sultry vocals are once again put to good use on “Wiped Out!” Instead of the urgent, youthful anxiety of “I Love You,” Rutherford employs more tranquil vocals as a sort of maturation.
“R.I.P. 2 My Youth,” the first single off “Wiped Out!,” fully embodies The Neighbourhood’s maturation, where Rutherford croons about the death of his young self. The song is the kind of relatable millennial anthem the group does best.
The group’s monochrome aesthetic, a hazy, noir-infused California dream land, still works effortlessly. Somehow, The
Neighbourhood make using only black and white seem second nature and not at all obnoxious or pretentious.
Perhaps it’s because this angsty aesthetic works perfectly with the foreboding and anxious music of both “I Love You” and “Wiped Out!.”
That hazy California dream land is personified on “Wiped Out!” with “The Beach.” The first and last sounds the listener hears on the track are that of the ocean with California waves rocking a docked boat. “The Beach” is the epitome of the moody atmospheric love song that is the band’s driving force.
The Neighbourhood’s “Wiped Out!” is the subtle, understated brother to the group’s first full-length effort “I Love You.” It’s a lesson in musical growth in the right direction without the band deviating from its core sounds.