“Fix Yourself, Not the World” by The Wombats is a new, indie-pop/psychedelic rock gem. Aside from the edgy, demanding title of the record, the tracks on this record follow the same patterns of the Wombats’ past albums; typically upbeat, and groovy. The trio can be compared to bands such as MGMT, The Cure, Jungle, Arctic Monkeys, etc. This album is delightfully unpredictable and contains multiple genres within its tracks. This album was created while traveling through 3 different cities (LA, London, and Oslo) and is a collection of art that the band made post-pandemic.
Track 1, “Flip me upside-down”, kick starts the album with a rad guitar solo at the beginning and spurts of psychedelic dream-pop throughout. This track is very upbeat and holds a very groovy attitude. Track 2, “This Car Drives All By Itself”, starts with a more gentle acoustic strum, slow lyrics, and once again, a feeling of psychedelia. Track 3, one of my personal favorites, is titled, “If you ever leave, I’m coming with you”. This track reminds me of the band The Strokes and has a very big build-up to the upbeat chorus. I appreciate the lyrics in this song as well. Track 4, “Ready For the High”, starts out with messy electric guitar and fades into a slow, hazy chorus. I can compare the intro to this song to “Love Buzz” by Nirvana. This song contains soft falsetto in the verses, heavy beats, and gives major Arctic Monkey vibes. Track 5, “Method to the Madness”, was the first single released off of this record. This track is by far the biggest outlier on the album. The song has an underlying, slow bass riff playing throughout the song. It is very mellow compared to the other tracks. This song can be heavily compared to any song by Ocean Alley and is also definitely one of my favorites on the album. There is also a surprise turn at the end which I will let you experience for yourself when you listen… Track 6 is “People Don’t Change People, Time Does”. This track is very catchy and contains very deep lyrics. I am in love with the idea of this song, and all of the meaning behind it. It is generally upbeat and has a very nostalgic feeling behind it. It is styled a lot like their 2015 album Glitterbug. Track 7, “Everything I love is Going to Die” is an accelerating song, but with a very depressing meaning. It is very intriguing how the lyrics and instrumentals contrast each other so heavily. This track mentions realizations the band has had during the quarantine. Lyrically, I appreciate this piece very much. Track 8, “Work is easy, But Life’s Hard”, is a very minor-key type of song. It differs from the other tracks on this album because it had a more negative feeling to it due to the lower, minor-keys used in the instrumentals. However, I think it was clever that they created that feeling of struggle with less “happy” chords” within the music since this song is about “life getting hard”. “Wildfire” is by far the most psychedelic track of them all. The instrumentals overtake the vocals in this song, making the lead singer’s voice extremely faint, and almost distant-sounding. Almost the entire song is sung in falsetto, and lots of synthesizers are used behind the vocals. It progresses throughout the song into a super electronic song. Harmonies are heavily incorporated in this track, as well as overlapping voices. This comes close to being my favorite track on the album. Track 9, “Don’t Poke the Bear” is very repetitive musically and it sounds a little basic compared to the rest of the album and is not one of my favorites. Lastly, track 11, “Worry” begins with dialogue, and has a rather mellow beat, but not as slow as “Method to the Madness”. “Worry” also has a super catchy chorus.
My top 3 ranked songs in the album are: “If you ever leave, I’m coming with you”, “Method to the Madness”, and “Wild Fire”. This album did not disappoint and continues my deep respect for the tri, The Wombats, and their creative, dynamic artwork.
Photo Credits from: https://eclipse-records.co.uk/products/the-wombats-fix-yourself-not-the-world
