Someday – if the weather ever warms up – what will you listen to while you lay out in the sun? I have a suggestion, the 2018 album by Wild Child, “Expectations.” The band that gave us “Crazy Bird” has produced an especially relaxing, thoughtful and nostalgic album.
Its simplicity is outweighed only by its emotional pull. With unique vocals, an acoustic commitment, and lyrics that are truly poetic, “Expectations” should be your go-to summer album (if it ever stops snowing).
Introducing the first song on the album, titled “Alex,” is a young child’s voice saying, “Silly Alex, don’t think that way.” The song has an island-afternoon feel. The band’s famous use of ukulele and catchy melody piece it all together, and it becomes pretty difficult to resist swaying and mumbling along with the words.
The mood becomes a bit more somber with “Eggshells,” a song about the inevitable insecurities involved with falling in love. Like many other songs by Wild Child, the piece crescendos and grows into an emotional ballad with overlapping vocals.
The more energetic “Back and Forth” has an R&B feel with bouncy lyrics and orchestral backings. The lyrics are all about an on-again-off-again relationship that “felt so right” but “once again it’s ‘so long.’”
“Think it Over” starts with attractively isolated vocals and quickly becomes something dramatic and empowering. One of the band’s first members, its lead singer Kelsey Wilson, provides a compelling voice for the song’s lyrics, as always. “Think it Over” is surprisingly exciting and has an intriguing darker edge.
The lyrics of “Think it Over” are about a complicated love triangle, in which a man seems incapable of leaving his former lover. When with someone new, “He swears, “Darling, it’s through”/ But looks over his shoulder/ Maybe she loves him/So we’ll wait, wait, think it over.”
Things grow a bit melancholy with “Follow Me,” about returning to an old romance for just one quickly slipping afternoon. “Maybe we’ll take our time,” the lyrics suggest, “And for the moment you’ll be mine.”
The album’s title track, “Expectations,” is a personal favorite, with a strong R&B vibe and a chorus that sticks. The lyrics express the frustrations of a girl who holds impossible expectations in relationships, setting rules that she never speaks and treating her lovers like strangers, all because “I’m afraid of losing something that shouldn’t be mine.” She recognizes, with agony and anger, that no one can “possibly give what I want.”
A simplistic and gentle ballad, “Sinking Ship” is a good one to listen to with eyes closed and heart open. After that is “My Town,” which emphasizes the band’s subtle country-esque nature, with lyrics about a painful breakup.
In a surprisingly feel-good single, “The One” is soft and sweet. Two voices overlap, professing the resilience of a seemingly illogical love. They admit to each other, “You’re not the one for me/ you’re just the one that I choose.” They stay up all night drinking and “talk a lot sweeter with booze.”
“Break You Down” is another one that will make you sway back and forth, right from the start. Its lyrics are repetitive, simple and catchy. Right afterwards is “Leave it Alone,” a piece with an inexplicable nostalgic energy. Its lyrics are about letting go of a broken relationship with “Nothing to fix/ Now you can walk away.”
The last song on the album is the appropriately titled, “Goodbye, Goodnight.” The album ends with exactly the gentle, cautious feeling that a fan of Wild Child might expect. The song has a waltz tempo and melody soft enough to draw out tears.
A band with a name like Wild Child might be dismissed as another hippie-inspired indie band, but these musicians have something worth offering up to the world. “Expectations” is one of the most compelling, emotional and thoughtful albums recently released.
