Guantanamo Baywatch – ‘Darling…It’s Too Late’ Album Review

Guantanamo Baywatch – Portland, Oregon, USA

Have you seen the show Portlandia? Yeah, it’s pretty weird, but it makes fun of the “hipster” culture that’s out there. That’s cool.

You know what else is cool? Sleater-Kinney (Click Here – we’ll wait…).

Now you know who they are, you know what else is cool? Surfing.

You know what else is cool? Making Guantanamo Bay seem like a completely chill place by pairing it with your favourite Hasselhoff guilty pleasure. And finally, you know what else is cool?

That all of the above are linked. How? Well, because they all come from Portland, Oregon. Yep, it’s a pretty darn cool place. And when you combine all of the above, you get Surf Punk-Rock group, Guantanamo Baywatch.

Now, some bands see the first track of their album as a statement; that it has to start off huge and *insert appropriate artist rambling about how special that first track has to be*. Guantanamo Baywatch know that your album should start off with the sounds of jungle primates, before slip ‘n’ slidin’ into ‘Raunch Stomp’, one of the albums “catchy-as-that-last-wave-you-missed instrumentals”.

Seriously though, a lot of these songs have been stuck in my head for many moons. I’ve woken up with a couple of them and even made a mash-up of them in my head. And yes, that may be because they can be “samey”, but it’s all cool… I’ve worked things out with them.

However, the band’s debut album, Chest Crawl, had a much dirtier and sleazier production, whereas on Darling…It’s Too Late, everything is cleaner and oil free. It took me a while to get used to this, but if you like your Surf Rock a little less cinematic and gritty (less Tarantino-esque), and more “chilling at the beach”, then you’ll be fine with it.

Moving down the track list and I found ‘Sea of Love’ perhaps a bit wishy-washy (it’s that clean production working against itself), but ‘Corey Baum’s Theme’ is, on the surface, very slick, with the cuts of motorbikes purring over. And your main man’s bike keeps rolling and rolling until we get to ‘Too Late’.

The song feels a little like a late-90’s parody song:

‘Too Late’ marks the moment where the album is starting to stand up on the it’s surfboard, and, oh here we go, ride the wave of a lifetime here. It’s that catchy Do-Wop romp, reminiscent of Some Pulp,  but with the addition of a sea-foam and ice cream breeze. It’s a crisp and clean cut that flows into ‘Mr Rebel’.

‘Mr Rebel’ has an attention grabbing bass-line before an old-school tremolo picked guitar lick that is half “winner of the school talent show”, half “these guys are too rad to be playing in pubs and bars”.

‘Beat Has Changed’ is possibly my highlight of the album. It has a catchy chorus that you can bop along to and safely nod your head to whilst driving down the coastline, withdrawing the fear of barrelling off the cliffs.

‘Shenanigans’ is ridiculous, but it’s also a barrel of catchy riffs that somehow keep building and layering, and never growing stale.

The fear of the opening half of Darling…It’s Too Late is that you can only do so much with Surf Rock before repetition causes your mind to become bored and redundant, But Guantanamo Baywatch manage to steer themselves clear of their own early downfalls on the back end of the album.

‘Boy Like Me’ is fun and ‘Do What You Want’ is nowhere near as existentialist as you’d have thought (it’s a joke). The album kind of fizzles out though. There’s no real big last wave, ‘Darling…It’s Too Late’ kind of paddles back to shore, relaxes with a cold beer and has a laugh around the campfire. But in the context of things, that’s fine.

Despite a shakey start to the album, Darling…It’s Too Late learns to stand up on it’s own and ride the waves, and by the end is actually an enjoyable album that’s deserves and demands repeat listens.

Guantamano Baywatch are keeping Portland weird and that’s pretty cool.

• Find the band’s other releases via there bandcamp – HERE and this album via Suicide Squeeze Records – HERE.
• Keep up to date with the watch via their Facebook profile by clicking – HERE.

#StayFresh