Coming out of Long Beach, California, the two-man acoustic piece This Wild Life put out their third full length album “Low Tides” on Sept. 9 through Epitaph records.

While they stay true to their style of soft, slow-paced melodies, the group infuses some elements of indie to create a rich atmospheric listening experience. That being said, I am seriously underwhelmed by the overall feeling of the album.  There is just something there that I cannot even really pinpoint, but it something on the surface of the album just really turns me off to it. Maybe as I continue to listen to it, I will get into it more and it is just an acquired taste, but until then, I am left unsatisfied.

This Wild Life started off as a guilty pleasure of mine with their second album “Clouded” being a common album showing up in my spotify recently played during my sophomore year. Two years later I can proudly say they are one of my favorite acoustic outfits, so the prospect of a new album seriously excited me. I’ve listened to Low Tides just about everyday since it came out and it has had plenty enough time to marinate in my head and to be honest, I am kind of disappointed in what I have heard. I am not as pulled in to it as with “Clouded” and the only tracks that have commanded my attention and that I thoroughly enjoy are “Let Go” and “Just Yesterday.” I am not necessarily saying that it is a bad album, maybe my constant listening to “Clouded” ruined my listening experience for the new album. My absolute least favorite song on the album is definitely “Falling Down.” While the lyrics are sweet, the instrumentals and vocals sound like recycled pop garbage with a keyboard riff that sounds way too much like the weird hook after the chorus of Justin Bieber’s song “Sorry.”

With the negatives upfront, I have to applaud how much This Wild Life experimented on “Low Tides” and how well they incorporated what they did. In many songs there is just a subtle enough electric guitar melody played by guitarist Anthony Del Grosso radiating solemnly in the background as well as piano and a string section backing up Kevin Jordan’s vocals. The overall instrumental of the album is beautiful and is the strongest part of the album in my opinion.

I seriously wish I could get into “Low Tides” as much as I did with This Wild Life’s previous material.