Few things have the power that nostalgia does—especially in music. And while reunion tours and festivals heavy with early 00’s acts are huge money-makers these days, even new music is a conversation with the musicians’ own nostalgia. Speaking as a musician myself, I can tell you just how deeply our sensibilities and tendencies are shaped by the music we grew up listening to.
Teenage Wrist have been celebrated as 90s art rock revivalists since their debut drew comparisons to Smashing Pumpkins, Hum, and Nirvana—all bands that are well regarded by contemporary critics. And while revisionist history loves to edit the more, uh, let’s say “cringy” pages of our teenaged CD wallets, Nostalgia is a less discerning critic. We can’t control how an album moved us before we “knew better.”
Because there was another trend dominating the rock charts in the 90s: nu-metal.
Despite however much Pitchfork and their ilk like to ignore it, the mid-to-late 90s were positively crawling with bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Deftones. And while the last act there has had a significant reevaluation lately, there’s still an instinct to turn up your nose at anything that sounds like you need to be wearing JNCOs to properly appreciate it. We might cringe at rap-rock now, but I think most of the writers on this site would admit that P.O.D. had a massive influence on our music taste as young people.
That said, there is an incredible freedom that comes from allowing yourself to embrace the music that meant so much to you without worrying that someone will think you’re a dweeb for it. And that freedom is all over Still Love, Teenage Wrist’s third full-length.
While the big shoegaze-via-grunge guitar riffs and catchy songwriting are still all over the place, there is a sort of swagger to the grooves that wouldn’t sound out of place at the much-maligned Woodstock ’99. Guitars have a little bit of funk-metal edge to them that’s more Slipknot than Silverchair. 311 frontman SA Martinez even has a feature, for crying out loud.
And honestly? It rules. Sure, there are bound to be some hipsters who write this off as the moment Teenage Wrist jumped the shark. But Teenage Wrist has never sounded like they’re having this much fun. There’s a playfulness that’s too infectious to dislike. Even more “serious” tracks, like the spacey, Incubusy ballad “Diorama” have a palpable IDGAF-itude to them. “Paloma a.k.a. Ketamine” even feels like a hidden track. If this record were released twenty years ago, it would have been preceded by ten minutes of silence.
But for all of its nods to the various shades of 90s rock music, Still Love feels fresh. These aren’t tropes that have been regurgitated half-digested onto the tape. This is the result of absorbing those sounds so deeply that it shapes who you are. And three records in, Teenage Wrist has given us the clearest picture of who they are yet.
Still Love is available now through Epitaph Records.
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