- Championing sun-drenched power pop with enough grit to appease punks, Bleached rep their LA locality with pride, endlessly weaving into their lyrics. The spirit is just inseparable from the music. Typically it's been impossible to hear the group without imagining sipping suds with your crew, lazing out on a sandy expanse, drinking in the sunshine or cruising along to a back-alley gig. However the place of sobriety this record is written from is a contradiction to the downing-drinks sentiment that listeners have become accustomed to. The aptly titled Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? grapples with self-sabotaging habits. While the themes can initially appear to be the standard pop formula of interpersonal relationships, if you take the title and press releases into account, you'll find the focus moving to relationships between humans and other entities. Prior to the release of this new record, Bleached have been touring with pop punk luminaries Paramore and they've taken cues from their running mates. There’s a noticeable blending in of more radio-friendly singles and, significantly, they’re no longer cruising around in a small, carefree bubble; it's not like it's burst or anything, but some life lessons have found their way in there and cozied up for the ride.
The rise and fall tune of Heartbeat Away welcomes the listener in with a familiar sound. It drives forward with the downstrummed crunch the Giraffe sisters have been serving up for a time now. Don't worry, Bleached haven't abandoned their familiar sound here and you won't be yelling “sell out!” Daydream, Valley To LA, and Rebound City stay true to the guitar bite and enthusiastic power-pop nuggets. Lead single Hard To Kill whistles its melody as a prelude and follows up with a four-on-the-floor, stomping groove. Swapping out the brittle six-strings for jangling, boogie-inducing chords and cavorting bass lines, this kiss-off ode to imploding impulses is their strongest single to date. Sneaking in a snatch of The Cure in the first line was a brilliant nod to the smooth post-punk melodies that drizzle through Somebody Dial 911. The watery pads float in the background and double down on the groups’ versatility.
The new aesthetic brought about by the lead single continues to shine through on later tracks like Kiss You Goodbye and Silly Girl. A standout feature on Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? is how effective the hooks are. Each one of these songs will have the listener singing along to the chorus before it has wrapped up and they'll niggle at you to listen, over, and over again.
Bleached are slowly moving from the DIY aesthetic that predicated their earlier release, but they haven’t sacrificed any of their strengths in doing so. The more pristine presentation paints a lustrous sheen over a well-curated album of power-pop brilliance. Wading into more radio-friendly territory by easing up on the crunchier instrumentals has paid-off in droves, opening up all sorts of new avenues for the band. All of these avenues have Bleached moving in the right direction.
- Matt Lynch.