Album of the Week: Beach Slang The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us

For some reason, earnestness sometimes rubs people the wrong way.

It's easy to make fun of someone when they wear their heart that much on their sleeve – there's certainly a vulnerability that accompanies giving that much of your heart to something, and doing so publicly. But there's a bravery required to opening up that way, and I'd argue every single time that the bravery always transcends any shit you take from someone about it.

Beach Slang's frontman James Alex believes earnestly in rock music. In its power to heal, to inspire, to make us feel, even just for three minutes or less, that someone out there fucking gets it.

And with the Philadelphia group's debut album, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, he's made a record that sounds like a devotional to music's power. It'll crush your ears with its power and hooks, even while Alex is being a romantic about music the whole time.

The thing flies by at just 27 minutes, and that's perfect for the make-or-break emotions, the pounding guitars, the sing-along choruses. It's all an explosion of beauty and joy, and the album leaves you wanting more. You can't help put hit play again as soon as it finishes.

Everything about the music and lyrics here is on its sleeve – and that include the album's thesis statement. "Ride The Wild Haze" opens with, "I feel most alive/when I'm listening/to any record that hits harder than the pain," and the rest of the song goes on to detail the escape Alex finds in music, how his brain sometimes gets in the way of his heart, and finding that "wild haze" – a way to escape it all. It's all catharsis, and perfectly soundtracks the moment when you stop giving a shit.

The whole album is full of songs like that.

Beach Slang's influences are pretty obvious – The Replacements loom large over the soundscape, and Japandroid's seminal Celebration Rock is an obvious touchstone. Things We Do doesn't quite match that album, but there's plenty of drive and power to get damn close.

Even the one break in the momentum, the startlingly gorgeous "Too Late To Die Young," is a love song to a scene, not a person. It's a torch song for the stage, for the audience, for creating something that connects with people you would never expect. It's one of the most honest and pure moments in music this year, and hits even harder because of the sea of rock around it.

Like any romantic, Alex is a fan of the big gesture, and that's what Things We Do ultimately is: the big move, the declaration of love, the "dare to be great" moment. Some people are always going to find that kind of thing corny, but as for me, I say fuck 'em. Throw this album on, turn it up and cut loose. And as the author Stephen R. Donaldson wrote, "Be true. There is also love in the world." Just listen.

The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us is out on Polyvinyl.

Also recommended this week:

Amy, the soundtrack to the award-winning documentary about Amy Winehouse.

Real Estate guitarist Martin Courtney's solo debut, Many Moons. 

Kirk Knight's long-awaited, woozy debut, Late Knight Special.

Van Morrison's reissue of the best album of all time, Astral Weeks.

The Neighborhood's moody rocky album, Wiped Out!