bauwaves - u r everything - New LP

u r everything, the debut record from Austin, TX’s bauwaves, was written at the tail end of a depressive episode. Lead singer Lew Houston suffered nearly a year of deep depression back in 2016, but as he climbed out of its clutches, inspiration began to strike for the songs that would become u r everything. 

This backstory feels important — much of the record is about depression and finds Houston’s autobiographical narrators pining for connection. But more than just topically, this is a record that sounds like it’s shaking off some depressive haze; the guitars crackle and fuzz, and Houston’s vocals sit somewhere between indie punk wail and death knell. 

u r everything’s calling card though, more than its grungy guitars and Houston’s baying vocals, is how all of its members play together: namely, fast-paced and messily, like the whole thing might fall apart at any minute. Rhythms don’t keep pace as much as they test the band’s ability to right the speeding vehicle that is each song. At times, it’s exhilarating, sounding like a rock ‘n’ roll remnant from the late eighties or early nineties; elsewhere, like on “years later,” the band sounds more lost than experimental, like the rhythms that were on the brink of falling apart actually did fall apart while recording.

Those hiccups mostly happen on the first side of the u r everything, as the album is back loaded with its best tracks, as if the band recorded everything sequentially, getting more comfortable jamming with one another as they went along. “early morning summer” adds some acoustic guitar to the band’s instrumentation, helping differentiate the song as a single and add much needed variety to the record. More than just sonics, though, the song shows Houston at his most vulnerable, his howling voice ruminating on suicidal thoughts. From there, things get more punk and just as depressed on “to the floor” and “like sinking,” giving u r everything’s second side a momentum and throughline that it doesn’t have up front. 

It’s the album’s final track, the titular “u r everything” when everything really comes together. The shaky rhythms and overblown guitar aren’t just style — they feel like life, a metaphor for the tumultuous journey everyone’s one. “Without you, there’s nothing,” Houston wails like his life relies one it; in a way, it does. u r everything is as much a record as it is a path to self-acceptance. At the end of Houston’s journey came the realization that life’s worth living and the calcification of that into song. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy, but sometimes it’s the moments when things start falling apart that we find the most meaning.  -Sean Craig