Wallows

Since their 2019 debut Nothing Happens, Wallows have injected an exquisite tension into their music: a sonically daring but wildly catchy form of alt-rock that hits every pleasure center, even as their songs speak to the confusion and insecurity that often accompany falling in love. In the making of their new album Model, vocalist/guitarists Braeden Lemasters and Dylan Minnette and drummer/guitarist Cole Preston reunited with Nothing Happens producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten) and brought a bold new precision to their sound, adorning their outpouring with stickier hooks and more elegantly composed guitar parts. When matched with the experimental spirit the trio have embraced since first making music together in their early teens, the result is their most immediately inviting work yet, inducing a catharsis that’s oddly euphoric.

The follow-up to 2022’s Tell Me That It’s Over—a critically lauded release produced by Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, HAIM)—Model takes its title inspiration from a phenomenon Preston refers to as “this weird inhuman pursuit of perfection that’s infected so many aspects of being a person today.” In pushing back against their own perfectionist impulses, Wallows adopted a decidedly fast-and-loose approach to the recording process, taking a cue from the garage-rock and post-punk bands that have indelibly shaped their musicality. “Every song started with the three of us playing live in a room, keeping it very simple and sticking with our instincts as much as possible,” says Minnette. “We ended up leaving in a lot of the mistakes and flubs, so even though it’s the most slick we’ve ever sounded it’s also the most honest.”

Mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent (Björk, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and mainly recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound in the band’s homebase of L.A., Model opens on the hypnotic riffs and galloping drums of “Your Apartment”—a track that fully encapsulates the album’s spiky effervescence and raw emotionality. Co-written by Wallows and Nate Mercereau (Andre 3000, Shawn Mendes), “Your Apartment” ultimately strikes a potent balance between its frenetic energy and the frustrated confession of Minnette’s lyrics (from the chorus: “Who said I don’t understand, or that I probably won’t remember time in the palm of your hand?/We both let go together/But I promise I get your sentiment/I wonder who’s been at your apartment”).

A dramatic tonal shift from “Your Apartment,” “Calling After Me” unfolds in bouncy rhythms and breezy vocal work as Wallows channel the blissed-out optimism of new love. “A lot of our songs are rooted in fear or doubt or nostalgia, but this is the most playful and light-on-our-feet we’ve ever been,” says Minnette. “I’m excited to put out something that shows another side of us but still sounds like Wallows through and through.” One of Model’s moodiest moments, “Bad Dream” presents an achingly tender portrait of devotion and disconnection, slipping into a lush and lovely psychedelia that sharply contrasts the song’s origins. “There was a phase where I was completely obsessed with boy-band songs from the ’90s, especially the melodies and the cadence of the vocals,” says Lemasters. “‘Bad Dream’ started off as a joke attempt at writing a boy-band song and ended up going through so many variations, but the DNA is still there.” And on “A Warning,” Lemasters and Minnette trade off vocals to deliver an epic yet minimalist breakup song that Minnette sums up as a “four-on-the-floor, dance-beat version of ‘Are You Bored Yet?’” (the triple-platinum lead single from Nothing Happens). “One of our overall goals for this album was to let the songs be less layered and dense,” Preston points out. “On ‘Are You Bored Yet?’ there’s about seven synths playing at once and it’s basically impossible to recreate live, but ‘A Warning’ turned out to be much bigger-sounding because there’s just so much more space.”

All throughout the making of Model, Wallows crafted their songs with an eye toward the live show, including an upcoming tour featuring stops at their biggest venues to date. “It definitely wouldn’t

have been the right time to make our avant-garde noise album—maybe we’ll save that for album seven,” says Minnette. “For this one we wanted to keep it experimental but also create the most concise record we could possibly make.” In that process, the band stayed true to a highly intuitive and free-flowing approach that Preston describes as “letting the song find itself”—a journey that found them generating nearly three albums’ worth of material by the time they left the studio. “Every time we make an album, it reinforces the idea that you can’t ever fake anything; you’ve got to create what feels the most real and inspiring and fulfilling to you,” says Lemasters. “We absolutely did that with this album, and now I can’t wait till it’s time to start working on the next one.”