Hideaway is an album by Wavves released on the record label Fat Possum Records on July 16, 2021.[1] This was the band's first album since You're Welcome was released four years earlier. The band worked with producer Dave Sitek,[2] and the album's themes were inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]
Background
In early 2019, Wavves began recording songs for what would become their seventh studio album.[4] This would become their first new music released since the 2018 standalone singles "All Star Goth" and "Emo Christmas".[3] After early studio sessions reportedly lacked surprises and "magic", according to frontman Nathan Williams,[4] the band began working with producer Dave Sitek.[2] According to Williams, melodies were initially built around short samples of songs from the 1950s and 1960s before removing those samples and creating the rest of the song's structure.[4] The album's lyrical themes were reportedly inspired by Williams living in a shed behind his parents' house during the album's recording, along with the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]
Release and tour
On March 30, 2021, the album's first single "Sinking Feeling" was released.[5] On May 4, 2021, the band officially announced the album, simultaneously releasing the second single "Help Is on the Way".[6] The album was released by Fat Possum Records on July 16, 2021. On August 23, 2021, the band announced a live tour throughout the United States with 38 shows, starting in Las Vegas on October 1, 2021.[7] This was the first live performance by the band since December 31, 2019,[8] as plans to tour in support of the re-release of their third album King of the Beach had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
The album was met with generally favorable reviews by critics, scoring 69 out of 100 on Metacritic.[9]NME called the album "Wavves' most original and varied work yet".[17] In a mixed review, Pitchfork called the album's hooks "straightforward to a fault, and short on those small, sometimes barely even perceptible deviations from expectation that distinguish a sublime hook from a routine one".[2]Classic Rock was more negative, calling it "an album full of lo-fi pop-tinged melodies sugarcoating a bitter centre".[12]
