WATERS - Something More!

WATERS
Something More!
2017
Spotify

Anthemic Indie-Pop. Its a short description but one that fits like a glove for this new record from Waters Something More!. The record follows suit from Waters' previous release of taking guitar driven bright indie music and cranking up the bubblegum even more. Yet even with all this sweetness to their sound their lyrics still remain smarter than they appear. "Molly Is A Babe" could even be called a punkish at moments as lead singer Van Pierszalowski almost snarls the chorus. The track almost gets into Brat-Pop territory, but manages to keep a strong rock and roll heart. The next rack however stumbles as it tries to fumble through a Weezer inspired track, complete with a guitar solo basically ripped from Pinkerton. However the Weezer they are idolizing here is not the one of old we all love, but the recent Weezer who seem content to make basic pop songs. Just in case you might think they were not trying to evoke Weezer on this record they actually mention them by name on "Second Guessing" which is in a word, odd. Title track "Something More" has this really great driving bassline giving it a really great depth. On "Modern Dilemma" Pierszalowski sings about things we should remember from the 80s woven in to a story about being in love, but it is to much of everything trying way to hard to craft this artistic take losing all emotion the track may have had.

That is the most frustrating thing about this album, there are these really great ideas and some really interesting takes, but then they get buried under some mess of anthemic pop. It is almost like Waters can't get out of their own way when writing these songs. They try to pull from a scattershot of influences and hope they can make it all work out in the end, but they just can't. The last track is so desperate to be the cumulative inspiring anthem and instead it just becomes filler with a part for the audience to sing along. If Waters could really drill these ideas down and get to the core of their sound they would have something but that moment never comes on Something More!. The record is fun in spots but no where near interesting enough to really come back for more. This record just seems to be a lot more shine than substance, on the surface it looks like it should be a pop explosion that thrusts Waters headfirst into the zeitgeist, but just underneath it there is almost zero depth.

5.0 out of 10