Stream: Wax Charmer, ‘Suburban Replay’

Kevin Bronson on February 21st, 2020

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The thing about Wax Charmer’s debut EP “Suburban Replay” is that it’s not the music of the suburbs. It’s neither the pop and hip-hop you hear bumping from cars stuck in Valley traffic, nor is it the bombastic emo that still embodies suburban angst. Further, it’s more about us-us-us than me-me-me.

The four songs from Jordan Kleinman, Henry Kuckens and Jacob Lauing (all former members of Jubilo Drive) offer a genre-fluid mélange of classic rock, funk (in the way some ’90s rockers were funk), prog and jazz that often changes lanes quicker than a tourist driving the 101. Sometimes it works, sometimes you’ll be bumping over a rumble strip cursing the leadfoot behind the wheel.

As daunting as that seems, there is a good ol’ guitar solo (“The City”), a healthy dose of ennui (“My words were late to work today,” Kleinman confesses in “Downstairs”) and an extended version of the politics-minded single “Emblem,” released late last year as a single. In “Social Currency,” Kleinman dispenses with his penchant for stream-of-consciousness to hone in on the concept of authenticity: “Make sure your life is optimized / the perfect house, the perfect wife / But that’s a front and we all know / that what we see is just a show.”

“Suburban Replay,” out today, is the first of two EPs the trio plans to release this year.

||| Stream: “Suburban Replay” in its entirety