Circa Waves – Death & Love Pt. 1 Review

Circa Waves continue to prove themselves as followers, not leaders, of an indie rock sound. They will pursue whatever noise is making waves and crumble when they are asked to present their twist on it. Death & Love Pt. 1 is a meandering piece of work, but what more could be expected from a band who are so far behind interest, so fixated on massaging popular themes with literal lyrics? At their best, they are a band as uneventful as their hit. At worst, well, Never Going Under is still out there for those who need a reminder. We must question what an artist can offer us. A reflection of ourselves? A new route through to understanding the toil and struggles of our life and the major questions? Circa Waves opts for the latter but in an indie landfill style of noise.  

Consider where anthemic indie rock is now, and where Circa Waves’ sound is. The return of legacy acts maintaining fresh material carves out a niche but also provides an advance from fresh faces tying art rock and chamber-like materials into their work. Euphoric rises and bouncing crowds are still a part of their show but there is a tender, well-written message to be found in those moments from Fontaines D.C. and The Last Dinner Party. Guitar rock at its fundamental core, its most innocent, is still available and yet the likes of Sam Fender and Courting are rising to the occasion, offering personable insights or exceptional storytelling elements on top of their instrumental work. Circa Waves offers neither. A stale riff in a crowd of placid occasions. American Dream may serve as that rising, euphoric mind-melting moment from the band but it relies on old interjections, on repetition and stagnant songwriting styles.  

It is not laziness which is the problem for Death & Love Pt. 1 but the band has pigeonholed themselves into the inevitable tones of lust and want, of romanticisms seen as individual experiences where opportunity and attention must be gained. It comes through on Like You Did Before, an emotionally blunt track with amiable instrumentals. Circa Waves are at their most enjoyable when the guitar work, lovely but inevitable, is given the lead spot. Catchy yet shallow songs are their bread and butter, and it is a shame more than anything to hear they are not moving on from this. Tones of the heart are pursued rather than socially relevant or active messages. It is a minor improvement over Never Going Under, though silence would have been preferable there. A shrug of the shoulders for We Made It, an emotionally manipulative anthem with broad strokes and big guitar moments.  

Pop optimism without the disguise of something deeper. Just track after track of staying hopeful in the tough times, anthemic attempts at popping a crowd into a place where they can jump around because projecting yourself onto a song is easier than thinking on what the words mean for the artist, and by extension, you. Death & Love Pt. 1 is no dire moment as far as production and music-making goes, all of it is slick and follows the same beat and move of verse, chorus, monstrous guitar solo, and onwards ad infinitum for Circa Waves. There are more in the genre who are doing much worse, but Death & Love Pt. 1 fizzles out almost immediately after it finishes. Circa Waves deals in dull abstracts. You can tell what they hint at on the likes of Hold It Steady and Let’s Leave Together.  

What a thrill it would be to run off together is their only tone. If it is not running away together it is running from each other and even an album coming in at just under a half-hour struggles to differentiate its nine songs. It is not like Everything Changed is pouring some new reflection of love and life into place. Circa Waves continues its relatively stale trend of making music which, had it been released twenty years ago, would be a surefire addition to The Inbetweeners soundtrack. Perhaps we should stay foolish and hope the second part is an emotionally rewarding, delicate experience. It would be a far stretch to assume so but we can live on in the hope a band with a decade of experience under their belt can find some new route through an emotionally powerful subject without having to rely on whistles, clunky indie styles and the open to interpretation tones of a sloppy writing style.  

But what are we to do when Everything Changed proves this formula will continue working so long as listeners see themselves, however briefly, in moments of tame indie creations? Despite a near-death experience influencing frontman Kieran Shudall, now thankfully well again and feeling a new lease of life, moments of nearing the bright lights seem not to have affected his songwriting. Still timid. Still toying with the blur of nostalgia and cliche which comes from a band still trying to find a set of particulars which works for them. This is a band, five albums in, still working with stock options. Nowhere is this clearer than Bad Guys Always Win, an album closer with no lasting impression featuring on an album where a lack of particulars serves listeners a chance to mimic the meandering tones and vapid emotional simplicity.