The Wombats’ new album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, is one of the most accurately named albums I’ve seen in a while. The entire collection of songs is about love and the lack of love and what to do about it all. Whether this is about one person or many past relationships, I’m not sure. What I am sure of, though, is that The Wombats treat every one of these scenarios as the most important thing in the world. So apparently, there are 11 most important scenarios in the world.

This album is sort of how I expected/wanted the new Walk to Moon album to sound. I didn’t get it from them, but I’m glad that The Wombats came through. It’s full of synth and subtle 80’s influence and it works perfectly.

My first taste of this album was the song “Turn”. The album’s second single was so unrecognizable as a song by The Wombats that I had to Shazam it to find out who it was. They’ve been around since 2003, but I first heard their song “Give Me a Try” from their 2015 album Glitterbug on the radio. I fell in love with the sound and eagerly awaited what they’d do next. They impressed me with their evolution over the past three years.

One stand out track is the opener, “Cheetah Tongue”. It’s a strong opener and was perfectly released as a single. It’s catchy in all the right ways and it’s a great beginning to a great album.

Honestly, there aren’t really any weak tracks here. Oftentimes there’ll be a dip in quality in the middle tracks of an album, but with Beautiful People that never happened. Even though I do have favorite tracks and ones I skip, it’s only because of personal preference, not because they’re bad songs or don’t flow well with the album.

My personal theme song from this album is titled, “I Only Wear Black”. I’m joking, but it’s hard not to identify a little bit with the line, “Sometimes you laugh / But usually you cry”. Encased in a cute melody and that mildly comical chorus is a song about a breakup. Lead singer Matthew Murphy sings about moving to L.A. and hanging out at the beach but, “…I don’t really care / They couldn’t walk me back to you”.

Sometimes a band will write a song with a metaphor that’s difficult to understand, and “Dip You in Honey” is that song. Even so, The Wombats have managed to make it accessible in a way I couldn’t verbalize at first. This song is about a new relationship and how wonderful and exciting everything is. Murphy wants to “dip it in honey” so maybe it’ll stay in the aptly called honeymoon phase forever.

Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life is an album I’ll be spinning all summer. It draws you in right away and doesn’t let you go until you’ve felt every up and down Matthew Murphy has. So, yeah, beautiful people will ruin your life, but at least now we can have fun with that concept instead of sulking about it. I’m so thrilled that The Wombats are back with this fantastic piece of pop rock mastery.

4.5/5

by Nadia Paiva

Nadia Paiva has been a music enthusiast since she can remember. Going to shows is her main pastime. The other is being upset when she can’t go to shows. This is her first official venture into writing about music. You can follow her on Twitter.