The Waeve – Kill Me Again Review

Wailing horrors open up The Waeve’s third and likely final single ahead of their self-titled debut album. Kill Me Again will play hellfire to the eardrums, a tonal whiplash for someone just taking the first steps into the day, toast in one hand and coffee in the other. That is the great beauty of Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall’s (of Blur and Pipettes fame respectively) work here. A chilling mood is set in stone, with some brilliant saxophone work and atmospheric shifts in tone and style for Kill Me Again, opening on sincere reinvention for two great lyricists. Coxon rises to the challenge of opening the track with some intense and electric moments, Dougall follows suit. Kill Me Again is a fascinating piece.

Much of that comes from how engaged and well-put-together this piece from The Waeve is. A good smorgasbord of instrumentals striking through, cutting into the track with a firm reason to do so. Those saxophone notes feel right at home in a track that marks itself as a soothing, discomforting blend. With a bassline firing through Kill Me Again, there is a resemblance of this piece to the best works of Pixies. Darker, sinister, The Waeve have so far taken their listeners to every extreme. To have all of that come together across one album is an exciting prospect that isn’t far off completion. Kill Me Again proves what was already quietly assumed about The Waeve, they have the range and perspective to do great works.

From Dougall’s second verse dominance to the saxophone charms of Coxon, it feels as though this pair of veteran musicians are pushing through with a definitive quality. There is an underground feel to The Waeve, something stripped out of the 1980s and influenced heavily by the darker corners of that eclectic mix. Sinister atmospherics mark a crucial change for Kill Me Again, one that separates it from the accessible doom and cautious gloom of Drowning or the relatively engaged Something Pretty. An eclectic mixture holds The Waeve in a better state than most groups made up of legendary figures. The talents progressed through on Kill Me Again are layered, untypical and would be a particularly upbeat saxophone solo-clad piece if it were not for the trembling bass and lyrical qualities.

Maybe that techno, pop-style cohesion comes from belting out LCD Soundsystem for the better part of a month. The Waeve’s tracks allow their listeners to hear what they need. Lyrical clarity and an unreal level of confidence for a new and inspired artistic route for Dougall and Coxon are as brilliant as expected. Never missing a beat not just throughout Kill Me Again but the bulk of their singles so far, promising pieces are on the horizon. Audiences inch closer to something that could be as perplexing as it is wonderful. Should their singles be any hint or indication of what is going to happen with that self-titled debut album, then great things should be expected. Lyrical clarity, unique soundscapes and a discomforting push toward something exciting.