7/10
Australian garage band Dune Rats dawn the universe with their third full-length studio album, Hurry Up and Wait. With near perfect catchiness and comfortable flow, this relatively short and sweet album hit quite a pleasant spot. Serving up lots of surf, summer, stoner vibes, the feel-good aspect is hard to miss on this one.
Kicking off with an answering machine voice sample, it’s almost near impossible not to think of Sublime’s “Raleigh Soliloquy.” Following closely behind is “Rubber Arm,” which has got to be the most earworm-worthy tune on this album, provoking regular humming from the first few notes. But what becomes apparent fast enough is that a streak of repetitive melodies follow, lacking a bit of diversity. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to venture into different genres, but adding a little bit of diversity in the general feel of the album could make things sound a little more exciting or mentally stimulating than the same sound patterns repeated.
Certain moments of exciting variety pop up, like with the beginning of “Crazy,” the added vocals in “Stupid Is As Stupid Does,” and the shameless and very real lyrical content of “If My Bong Could Talk.” Sonority wise, Dune Rats always seem to do great, working well together as musicians, but also making it sound like a lot of crazy and ridiculous fun. That’s a band I’d want to be in.
Regardless, I’m always inclined to sing along, bop my head, and wish I was floating down a river on the hottest day of the year with a beer and Hurry Up and Wait playing on a cheap Bluetooth speaker. There exists a small risk of going in a bit of a monotone direction at times, but the album always manages to remain on the catchier side of things.
Written by Talia Plante
*Edited by Dominic Abate
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