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Vista Kicks - Twenty Something Nightmare 

Rock band Vista Kicks has put out their new album and If you read my review a little while back on the teaser single, you’ll know how excited I am for this. Vista Kicks has been around for a number of years now and they’ve really been on a grind for the past couple, creating amazing cali-summer-rock music that really just gets to me. So how’s their new album “Twenty Something Nightmare”?

“Million Dollar Seller Pt. 1” kicks off the album which I actually did cover in the teaser review, however, this song is still great. The dirty guitar tones are great and this boisterous sound has so much attitude and it’s just sexy. “If I didn’t have you” is a surprisingly mellow and dreamy sound. Great reverb guitar and instrumentation, and nice personal vocals. This is a definite change in Vista Kick’s attitude and it’s refreshing and I kinda like it. The ending is very energetic and loud though, bringing the sound back full circle, great track. “Victim Of The Times” is a nice happy song, some country-western, Lou Reed, mixture of sounds. It has a catchy chorus and a really cool bridge too, definitely a low-key banger. “Live, You’re Gonna Die” has some good instrumentation, electric and acoustic mixture, as for composition and such, it’s a tiny bit boring. It’s not like that bad, but it’s a little predictable, however, it has a nice message. “I’m Yours” has a good sound, some reggae influences bleed through a bit, the lyrics are nice, happy and cute. The song gets really into the thick of it in the middle, thumping rhythms and great vocals, awesome guitar solo, and claps. Who doesn’t like claps? Definitely one of the best songs up until this point in the record. “Cool It” is actually a little funny, it takes on this old-school theme even from the first second. Even though it’s a little tacky, It’s entertaining and you can tell they probably had a lot of fun in the studio with this. “Wrong Side Of Town” is a high energy song, it actually reminds me a little bit of old-school video game music, but with a lot more focus and instrumentation. The rhythm is funky, I love the sound, the vocals are great, energetic and dirty. Also, that main guitar riff is sick. “Numbers” was one of the songs I was most excited about for this album because of the teaser. What I was most excited about was making it longer because the single did end at like 3 and a half minutes to go into a weird perspective of someone getting out of their car and stuff. However, they didn’t do that for the album they just kept it the way it is. I’m kinda disappointed in the fact that they didn’t, but I still like the song. The chorus will always be super catchy to me. “Million Dollar Seller Pt. 2” continues the first part by just jamming on the progression. It’s a pretty good way to mark the halfway point on the record, lots of great solos.  

“Machula” is a pretty interesting track. I like the chorus, I like the vocals a lot specifically, it sounds like there’s some guest vocalists. There are some weird piano points in the track, but the overall instrumentation is rad. “Why Do You Say You Love Me” cool lo-fi vocals kick off the song, and some nice sounds, hints of tropical influences for sure. The “Is This How’s It’s supposed to be” hook is really great. There’s a lot of emotion here and It’s a great track. “Having A Good Time” takes the band a little back in the years with the surf-rock vibes. This song, like the previous track, has some heartbreaking themes, it kind of contrasts against the mostly positive first half of the record. At this point, I have to shorten my descriptions of songs because this album is pretty long and I don’t want this review to take forever to read. “Kelly Come Back” has a nice little recognizable descending progression, but it keeps a little bit of a classic rock and roll sound to it. Definitely a velvet underground vibe with this track. Rad outro. “I Can’t Think Of Anybody But U” has a cool psychedelic rock sound, really awesome organ sounds as well as the dreamy classic 60s guitar. “Your Love Is All I Need” is kind of like the ballad for this album definitely, it’s an upbeat acoustic and low-keyish jam, but with dark tints in the lyrics. “Water Under The Bridge” is a nice little tune, kind of like an interlude between the songs, reminds me of Bob Dylan a bit. “All Over Now” has fantastic vocals, like almost angelic. Then it goes into a little folk-style diddy. The song slowly builds up. The final track “Twenty Something Wrong” is kind of dark, it sounds like it's from the perspective of people against the lead singer. Although the song has funky grooves and is pretty danceable, it’s not the happiest thing, but it does have its tint of rebellion. The song goes through changes, but all over keeps a really great ending feeling to it. One of my favorites on the record. Great way to send the listener off.

So this is the new Vista Kicks album I’ve been waiting for, but I’m not sure if it was 100% worth the wait. It’s a great album, there’s no question, but I guess what I mean is, it’s not as good as their previous works, but I think it’s also their most experimental. You can get a read off of the performances as if they had fun making the record and I think that ’s the really enjoyable part. So no the album isn’t “Booty Shakers Ball” or the “Chasing Waves EP” when it comes to the songs, but overall entertainment, I think this album is just as good. I have some things I don’t like, however, with this record I don’t really care about them because It’s just a fun time overall and that’s what matters.

8/10

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