Nothing Happens by Wallows

Nothing Happens by Wallows

Ava Cammarata

With over 8.7 million monthly Spotify listeners, an American alternative rock band named Wallows is very popular among younger generations. Composed of Dylan Minnette, Braeden Lemasters, and Cole Preston, this band has created music under the genre of indie rock, alternative rock, lo-fi music, post-punk, surf music, power pop, and rock. The group has released three ep’s, thirteen singles, and one album named Nothing Happens released on March 22, 2019.

The first song off of Nothing Happens is “Only Friend,” a song about feeling lonely and losing the one person that you cherish the most. The song debuts the album with the symbolism of innocence and how everyone loses theirs as they outgrow friendships and relationships with people. “Only Friend” includes a riff in the beginning that is featured throughout the track, building up the album. 

The second song on the album, “Treacherous Doctor,” is one of the more meaningful, darker songs on Nothing Happens. The song describes the insecurities that everyone experiences that come from opening up to others and the thought process of the existential mind. Minnette, Lemasters, and Preston ask the question of what’s the point of doing anything if we all end up at the same place in the long run? Nonetheless, the upbeat background contrasts the intense lyrics. 

“Sidelines”, the third song off of the albums is about witnessing your partner falling in love with another person, while maintaining a relationship with you. The partner imagines what it’s like without the other, and the other person can’t do anything but let them drift away. The upbeat feeling that radiates from the songs makes it one of my favorite songs from the album. The lyrics and mood from “Sidelines” makes it a catchy song that can be played at many moments of one’s life. 

Wallow’s most popular song, “Are You Bored Yet?” features fellow music artist Clairo, on a track about being in a relationship with another person and eventually becoming bored and isolated, fearing that one or both people in the relationship feel as if they are ready to move on. This smooth, breezy feeling song that relates back to the insecurity feeling from “Treacherous Doctor,” has been streamed over 300 million times on Spotify. In the relationship described in the song, both partners want to stay together, but don’t know how the other feels.

One of the most bright songs on the album, “Scrawny” offers a brightside to the album after the first four songs. The “borderline funny” song contrasts the more serious songs with a song that just makes people happy to listen to it. Wallows talks about a scrawny person who is in control of their life and everything around them, but believes their looks change how people perceive them. “Scrawny” is another one of my favorites on Nothing Happens because of the upbeat lyrics and melody.

In the middle of Nothing Happens includes “Ice Cold Pool.” This song includes lyrics from a past single of theirs released in 2018 called “Underneath the Streetlights in the Winter Outside Your House.”  “Ice Cold Pool” contributes to the theme of losing your innocence as you grow and knowing that you have to enter adulthood. Although I love all of the album, this song is another one of my favorites coming from it because of the catchy lyrics and time and effort put into making the song.

Furthermore, “Worlds Apart” is the seventh song off of the 2019 album. This song is about the feeling of drifting from someone and wondering where you stand with that person considering the apparent space. It describes the feeling of feeling like you don’t know someone anymore, but still reminiscing in the memories from the relationship even if it feels as if you’re worlds apart. The heavy themed song is one of the least popular from Wallow’s discography, despite the inspiring instrumental throughout the piece.

“What You Like,” Wallow’s oldest song from Nothing Happens, is about trying to save a one-sided, failing relationship. On the track, Dylan Minnette sings most of the vocals and sings about finally taking the time to contribute to the relationship and listen to his partner. This song is another of the band’s least popular songs.

The ninth out of eleven songs from the album, “Remember When,” is personally my favorite song from Nothing Happens. It’s about being nostalgic of a past relationship and remembering all the good times that occurred within it. Despite all the bad moments, one wants to get back with the other and redo their relationship in hopes that could prevent all the bad things from happening. There are so many different parts of the song that make you want to sing along and the beat and music makes you feel as if you’re in a coming of age film as the main character.

Dealing with negative things thrown at you is a part of life, and “I’m Full” acknowledges that in the almost four minute song. It talks about how through life, one will experience time periods where they have minimal friends or some will experience the highs and lows of substance abuse, especially the lows. The vocals provided by Dylan Minnette on this track bring it to life as it extracts the theme of overcoming one’s insecurities towards the end of the album.

The last and final songs off of Nothing Happens includes one of the best themes, as well as the best transition between songs. No matter what happens to you, nothing has happened because you have much more life to live and everything will eventually be okay, and that’s what this song revolves around. “Do Not Wait” is the most personal and vulnerable to the trio due to the mass amount of effort and thought placed within this song. During the singing and track in the back, negative statements are said throughout the first half, but gradually transition into positive ones. The end of the song includes a slowed down version of the opening riff of “Only Friend” to create a loop-like transition between the two songs if the album was hypothetically played through on a loop.

Nothing Happens, a thirty eight minute and fifty one second album, is nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes. Many of the tracks are catchy and upbeat enough to jam out to, but they also include serious themes that many can relate to or at least empathize with. Nothing Happens serves as an introduction to the rest of the band’s memorable singles and extended play records. This album is a gateway to falling in love with the band and the music they have to offer.