The Wombats have grown, both in popularity and in musical style, since the release of their first album “A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation” 11 years ago. The Liverpool-based rock trio is a quintessential British alt-rock band, delivering catchy songs with quirky lyrics about relationships and growing up. In “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life,” released Friday, the band sticks to that formula. The three singles released ahead of the album alluded to a promise of greater growth from the band, but the rest of the album does not quite live up to that potential.
“Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” is a good album, but it doesn’t contain any of the pleasant surprises of The Wombats’ 2015 album “Glitterbug,” which took a step away from the band’s typical quirkiness and embraced a more upbeat sound. Instead of singing about combative relationships, “Glitterbug” seemed to center around embracing life and all it has to offer. It used less of the kitsch of “This Modern Glitch” and “A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation” and produced a more genuine, meaningful sound.
Some of “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” reflects the progress of “Glitterbug.” The standout track from the album is “Turn,” released as a single Dec. 6. Reminiscent of “Glitterbug”’s “Greek Tragedy,” “Turn” maintains an ethereal sound. For an album with a lot of faster, ‘80s rock-inspired tracks, the ballad “Turn” offers a nice break from the norm. “Turn” paints a nostalgic view of youth with lyrics like “Baby it’s the crazy I like / I think I saw the world turn in your eyes.”
“Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” sticks to The Wombats’ typical themes of romance and finding yourself. Lead singer Matthew Murphy frequently sings to not-so-perfect lovers. On “Lemon to a Knife Fight,” he sings, “I kick and you like to punch / I’m unhinged and you’re undone,” while on “Lethal Combination,” he says, “We’re a lethal combination, too lost for therapy / Guilty by association, I’ll keep you close to me.” While this us-against-the-world mentality worked well on The Wombats’ previous album, this sentiment seems a little too jaded after the sincerity of “Glitterbug.”
The album features some of the Wombats’ usual camp, often turning to cringeworthy lyrics. For a band composed of men over the age of 30, The Wombats try too hard to appeal to a younger, more angsty demographic. No band with members over the age of 22 should feature songs with lyrics like “My best friends are my enemies,” but this juvenile line rounds out the track “Lethal Combination.” “I Only Wear Black” contains an overly simplistic message of being an outsider in today’s society and doesn’t say anything the Wombats haven’t conveyed in the past. And while “Black Flamingo” is a solid addition to the album, the childish line in the chorus, “I want to love you but it hurts hurts hurts,” detracts from the catchy, drum-driven track.
“I Don’t Know Why I Like You but I Do” redeems the album at its very end. The soulful, slow conclusion to the album stands out from the rest, featuring a heavy focus on guitar and poignant lyrics like, “We both know that it’s time to go / We both know you’re going to stay.”
“Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” is a mixed bag. “Turn” and “I Don’t Know Why I Like You but I Do” show that The Wombats are capable of doing more than using quirky lyrics to describe past lovers, and “Lemon to a Knife Fight” embodies all that worked about the old Wombats. Many of the other tracks lack interesting instrumentation and lyrics, as well as the usual charm of the band. The Wombats give up the fun quirkiness of their earlier albums while failing to embrace the meaningful yearning of “Glitterbug.” Their fourth album is worth a listen, but it also shows that the band may be too caught up in its past to create a future for itself.
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