Album Review: Wavvy Hands
‘The Human Condition’ lyrically lacking

Oh my. Oh, oh oh, mmm, mmm. These are about half of all the lyrics on the EP The Human Condition by the Mount Pleasant band Wavvy Hands.

I have sympathy for local bands. I really do. I understand this is a starting point for most bands, a learning process and a way to fine-tune their sound. Wavvy Hands is just beginning its journey into the friendly shining music business, and still have some work to do.

The band describes themselves as “electronic folk.” They do have the trendy contrasting genre thing going for them, pairing simple synths with acoustic guitars. All the songs are relatively simple. “Stethoscope” has a disco feel to it and opens up with the extremely overused call of “Oh-oh-oh-oh.”

We get it.

To me, an overuse of these words screams laziness and filler — acceptable every once in a while if you have a voice like Robin Pecknold — but if you’re just putting random noises in to take up time and space, it’s going to become obvious and annoying to the listener.

The lyrics on The Human Condition are somewhat difficult to understand and lyrics are something I think is very important in music. If your sound isn’t particularly pleasing, at least give me something good to think about. In order to really get a grip on what is being said, the listener has to really focus on the words being half-mumbled. If you’re going to write music, sing it loud and crisp. I want to hear what you’re saying.

As far as vocals go on Wavvy Hands’ new EP, there is some work to be done. It’s a little on the side of whiny and flat. I think this is something a lot of musicians struggle with, local ones especially so it seems. I understand that songs often deal with expressing emotion, which can lead to whines but please —  keep this to your pillow. I think the only solution for this is practicing and perfecting. There’s potential here, it just needs to be worked at.

Overall, I wish the EP had more energy. “December, Where’s The Snow?” is the most upbeat track, and possibly the most listenable — though it’s still lacking in vigor where there is a surplus of (surprise) “Oh’s.”

There’s no certain track that really packs a punch for me, and everything is slightly watery and flimsy. There are good ideas being explored here, but they need to be delved into further and made much more complex. Making music is a difficult task, it allows the listener to dissect each and every sound. If a band is going to take this route they need to make sure each and every second is audio gold, and that is not something that Wavvy Hands have down quite yet.