Centre of Your Universe is the second album from Bleeding Knees Club frontman, Alex Wall (known here as Wax Witches). Anyone acquainted with BKC’s work is unlikely to be surprised, but there’s a homespun quality that distinguishes this LP from the band’s Dev Hynes-produced debut.
Going it alone gives Wall free reign for experimentation, albeit within fairly limited songwriting parameters. Theme Song is a snippet-sized prologue, featuring surging guitars and eager vocals, and it’s an apt indication of what’s to come.
The brevity isn’t repeated, but the record’s best moments are when conventional structure takes a back seat. Chief instances include replacing vocals with chunky guitars in the verses of Poser, forgoing an identifiable chorus in Serotonin Syndrome and shrouding the vocals in contemplative reverb on You’re Not My Idol So I Shouldn’t Be Yours.
However, having no screening resource (i.e. band-mates, producer) means a bunch of lacklustre tunes make the cut. Nothing is drastically out of place, but there are some fairly superfluous moments of adolescent pop-punk (Social Introvert, for example).
Wall doesn’t feign vocal sophistication and his delivery has a naïve charm. The melodies become tedious or grating when pressed too forcibly, but when left to mingle in the guitar fuzz, a deceptively sombre quality creeps through.
It’s unclear whether it’s angst or inertia driving Wax Witches. Either way, Centre of Your Universe is somewhat let down by a lack of discernible purpose. Still, it feels like an honest portrait of Wall’s bedroom musings and shows promise for where he might take things in future.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Best Track: You’re Not My Idol So I Shouldn’t Be Yours
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Surfing Strange SWEARIN’, Afraid of Heights WAVVES, MCII MIKAL CRONIN
In A Word: Tangy
