Wavves: King of the Beach

Label: Fat Possum

Here's to growing up. Not that Wavves doesn't look the same from the outside: cheapie day-glo artwork featuring a mysti-cat smoking a ciggy under a pot leaf, the indie-mundanity of the title of Nathan Williams's third album (spare me the claims of irony, though I'm glad he didn't call it "Wavvvves"). But Williams and new Wavvers Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes (formerly Jay Reatard's rhythm section)have emerged from the shadows of fuzz and lo-fidelity production that can sometimes dutifully obscure weak songs with the best batch of Wavves-ness yet. Not that Williams has lost his boyish charm: "Green Eyes" is an endearingly honest and direct love song (and it's, like, actually arranged, 'n junk); "Baseball Cards" uses some of that old fuzz and murk as a weapon rather than merely as camouflage; and the title track opens the album in ramshackle pop-punk glory, announcing a brand-new talent who you already mostly know. Ladies and germs, meet Wavves again. (M.L. Thrope)