Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life- The Wombats Review

First of all, the name is a bit too long, so I'll just call it BPWRYL. It was preceded by the pretty good, almost throwback to their first album Lemon To A Knife Fight, the excellent indie anthem Turn, the psychedelic Cheetah Tongue, and Black Flamingo, which sounds like a song left over from Glitterbug.


These four start of the album, but with Cheetah Tongue first, and the rest of them in the order they were released. After the muscular guitar and electronic beats of Cheetah Tongue, the classic Wombats of Lemon To A Knife Fight, the supreme indie guitar and craftsmanship of Turn, and the Glitterbug throwback of Black Flamingo, they finally launch into some new songs. Starting off the new ones is White Eyes has a great, driving almost-visible bass and narrative that The Wombats do so well, but has some vocal samples and mix of instruments that work, but are a bit disorienting. Lethal Combination sounds like a ripoff of an Ed Sheeran song, with a mix of instrumentals that partially take away from even the decent message. Luckily, it's pretty short, and leads into the next song, another bass-based banger which is pretty dark for The Wombats, but still really good. I Only Wear Black is a melancholy song that has yet another weird but well-working mix of instruments, and doesn't sound tremendously like The Wombats, more like Fall Out Boy. Ice Cream is also a major departure for The Wombats, and artful composition much more similar to the extremely contemporary, multi-instrument, ornate Indie track like the ones currently dominating the radios. In that sense, it excels, and tops off half an hour's worth of songs that could all do well playing on Indie or Alternative radio. The last two songs on the record are okay, if a bit overly sentimental.

Overall, the album is pretty good. It's a major change for The Wombats, moving towards contemporary indie with some tendrils left over from their previous albums and sounds, some helping them and some holding them back. I particularly like the bass-heavy parts of the LP, which really sets apart their new sound and gives it the energy it needs. I'd have to say that Turn, Ice Cream and White eyes are the best songs, with Lethal Combination, Black Flamingo and I Don't Know Why I Like You But I Do occupying the lower end of the spectrum. Hopefully I'll catch them on their tour with Weezer, but in the mean time, I'll be purchasing the vinyl of this record.