Bleached, born out the ashes of the defunct West Coast punk band, Mika Miko are now back with their sophomore effort, Welcome The Worms. The Clavin sisters alongside Micalya Graham and Nick Pillot produced Ride Your Heart back in 2013. This acted as Bleached’s debut LP and it took from their former punk ethos whilst merging it with a more sensible, retrospective look at 60s girl-groups, the likes of The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes. It took playful harmonies, coming-of-age lyrics and blended it with their ruthless punk attitude that swamped their Mika Miko years – essentially it added a pop-sensibility to the frenzy that they create so well.
The album cover of Welcome The Worms takes a step away from their former release. Ride Your Heart depicted the free-spirited youthful outset, head out the window, hair flowing in the wind, this combined with the music gave the catalytic imagery of the free youth – optimism, hazy days and fun-fuelled adventure. With Welcome The Worms, you get the sense that Bleached are ready to make their serious statement now. Donned head-to-toe in military gear, the group consisting of Jennifer and Jessica Clavin with Micayla Grace (absent from the cover is Nick Pillot) appear like Tarantino’s Deathproof stunt-drivers. The militaristic imagery suggests something stronger than escapism on this album, a more forward thinking look to the future. It’s a stance and when Bleached depict this image, it suggests they are ready to confront their audience, create tension. Confrontation is key here.
The album opens with the single, ‘Keep On Keepin’ On’, a song that races out the traps and demonstrates the pop-sensibility that the group have developed post-Mika Miko. It’s packed tightly with hooks and catchy melodies. It become obvious that the surf-rock freedom of Ride Your Heart has been chiselled away leaving for a darker, more malicious beast that points directly towards full-throttle, punk rock’n’roll. ‘Keep On Keepin’ On’ lyrically revels within sadistic relationship troubles but the unity that a couple share, sticking with the other person. This harks back to that all loving, all unifying 60s girl-group lyricism, something that is wrapped in optimism regardless of the struggle through the woods. It’s refreshingly warming to hear something that is caught up in the destructive charm of siege mentality rather than giving up and giving in.
‘Keep On Keepin’ On’ really sets the tempo of the opening tracks on the album, from here it progresses into ‘Trying To Lose Myself Again’; a song that takes from the frantic energy of the likes of The Soft Pack yet adds that female kick to it. Riffs bulge at the seams of the song pointing towards the DIY past of Mika Miko – a band that rested on their better-live-than-recorded laurels. The picture that begins to be painted though is that perhaps they have now found the perfect balance of production and punk aesthetic; now it seems they may be beginning to find the crossover groove that allows for consistency in recording quality and live experience. The theme of the hell-to-leather punk rock’n’roll expands into ‘Sleepwalking’, pitching Jennifer Clavin’s yelps into an exasperated scream of: ‘Now my eyes are open wide!”
Fortunately ‘Wednesday Night Melody’ comes around at the right time, just as the 100mph punk thing was threatening to become tiresome, Bleached return to the 90s idea of pop-punk but with the sleaze and cheese. It takes the premise of Green Day’s Dookie and makes it sound new again It’s a refreshing take on it, updating it and stripping back the elements that called for the demise of pop-punk in the early 00s. A similar theme is found within ‘Wasted On You’, a song that utilises hooking vocal melodies in the background demonstrating why Bleached are a significant step forward for their genre in the modern day. They managed to take the pop-punk aesthetic and update it, embedding it within their vigorous DIY, scrappy style removing any element of cliche. The swagger of ‘Chemical Air’ is the first thing that hits you, the chug of the guitar, the throb of the drum and unison with the bass makes it become a marching song of real volume; this then transposed into the latest single, ‘Sour Cherry’. A pop-song of every regard, the subtle synth lines towards the back end of the song plays on the loud-quiet-loud lesson that the Pixies taught us previously. It carries a hip shaking groove and Jennifer’s elegant vocals that howl: “Everything is passing you by” in some nostalgic, wise-owl fashion.
As the band venture into ‘Desolate Town’, the whimsical sunshine that glimmered through Ride Your Heart becomes a beam of vengeance and angst, its aggressive tone harks back to the earlier aspect of the album with raging guitar lines. The album only really stutters at brief points and this is represented in the too heavily nostalgic pop-punk sound that is strung out on the final two tracks. ‘Hollywood, We Did It All Wrong’ falls cheaply on 80s music that does not do a lot for the album on the whole, empty palm-muted guitar fills voids with cliched hand-clap sections that try too hard. Melodies are too obviously borrowed from the likes of Blondie as Jennifer sings in some high-school fashion: “Blasting the radio.” Similarly, ‘I’m All Over The Place’ leaves too much vacancy in the music, it never feels as if the song has much direction and unfortunately draws out the album unnecessarily.
However, the falters are of no real shame to Welcome The Worms, an album that otherwise draws from all aspects of punk music and does it so tastefully, it strips back from what Ride Your Heart did and throws the band under a different light. Something that can be exceptionally hard for a lot musicians is the ability to progress therefore it’s significant to note that Bleached have this potential. The new, militaristic approach is a sign that may appeal to fans of their previous stuff such as Mika Miko, a punk aesthetic that demonstrates more pop-sensibility without it becoming cliched. They step around the muddy puddle of nostalgia well and on the whole have produced something really special here.
Tom Churchill
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