If The Neighbourhood was a person you knew from high school, they would be that guy who sits on the back of his black corvette with a jean jacket on, smoking cigarettes with an omnipresent fog following him around. With Wiped Out!, The Neighbourhood does nothing to try to change their identity. This single aspect of them may be what makes them so compelling, yet extremely haunting. Each song lets listeners enter a world of unhinged despair with the ever-enduring hope of relief that is as reliable and accessible as a river in the desert. It is this realm of mysterious excitement and twisting agony that makes Wiped Out! such an amazing ride into the world of The Neighbourhood.
Very few albums are as adventurous as Wiped Out! to include an opening track of total silence. Many listeners may ponder or question the inclusion of this track, but questioning it is only a manifestation of someone’s distrust in the lush thriller that The Neighbourhood has masterminded for their curious fans. With each scouring listen of Wiped Out!, one can pinpoint a new exact point of emotional clarity in the stroll through this album’s vast sentiment. As for myself, I keep returning to their eerie tune “Single”. The Neighbourhood’s daring style of crushing doom mixed with a mirage of blissful exuberance is on complete display in this song (or tale) of two lovers intertwined in a peculiar affair of impending promiscuity.
It is extremely challenging to assert that The Neighborhood’s Wiped Out! is anything but an absolute chef-d’oeuvre. An album in the vein of Wiped Out! should only be revered for its ability to successfully lead listeners into an opaque world of startling tenebrosity. The nebulous obscurity and alarming charm of Wiped Out! should only make a third Neighbourhood album even more anticipated. A style as complex and serpentine as The Neighbourhood’s only equates to an excruciating presentiment of when the next journey accompanying the high school bad boy will be.
Check out “The Beach”:
