As Waterparks embarked on their sixth studio album, the goal wasn’t to feel like they had lost their momentum when Intellectual Property 2, the original announcement, had been scrapped as the follow up to 2023’s Intellectual Property. The became how to find a way to continue evolving as people and as musicians and as a band, seeing that they had just parted ways with their team and label over at Fueled By Ramen.
From being completely honest with themselves to their fans, something Awsten Knight tends to not shy away from, the sequel was not in the books for the three band members, but being able to sit down in the studio with Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and legendary Tim Burton composer Danny Elfman would open up the road for Waterparks to get the ammo that the band needed to ensure JINX is not only a timeless classic, but a growing experience for Knight, Geoff Wigington and Otto Wood.
Throughout “The Prowler Tour”, the band teased their opening track TELL ME WHY from the new album which features a murderer’s row of pop composers: Hoppus, Elfman, Eric Nally (Foxy Shazam, shoutout Peacemaker), Michael Clifford from 5 Seconds of Summer and Sorry My Love’s Dillon Francis and Albert Hype. The song features Knight in a comatose nightmare that forces him to reflect on life, in a world where he asks about the tortures of the world, juxtaposing the mood with the frantic structure and tempo. If the point of life is not to die, then Knight needs a reason, and that’s where Elfman’s devil forces him to wake up from his nightmare. Unfortunately for Knight, this doesn’t change anything, and the tone is set for the album, questioning every life decision Knight’s made since becoming a musician.
RED GUITAR feels like a small throwback to Watch What Happens Next off of their third album, Fandom. In the meaning of the message, if you play guitar, there is a higher chance of childhood delusions coming to fill your head with doubt if you were to be asked by the younger version of yourself if you made it big in the music industry. Everyone is watching Knight’s next steps, almost as if it’s another version of Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. He knows it’s his purpose to keep going just like the younger self of Knight would want him to keep going to be the superstar he always dreamed of himself as.
From questioning the invasive “fans” of the band on IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL to reflecting on the sadness he felt when he had to now rebuild his world after moving on from his old team on PROWLER, the record slowly works its way into BETTER THAN THERAPY. It’s in this song where Knight is talking about a situationship problem that he has become obsessed with and that he can’t learn to let go which all it is doing is making him reflect on the self-sabotage that he’s still learning to get better from.
The next five tracks painted a beautiful setlist of tracks. These are the kinds of tracks you would want to hear when you’re with your friends, or on a trip to go see a festival of bands that include Waterparks on their schedule. NOBODY BUT YOU kept things calm before the teased track for years, GWEN STEFANI. With how long they’ve been teasing the track, there was ‘no doubt’ it’d have to deliver.
In the next three of the five tracks on the album, ‘NO, NO, NO, NO, NO’, PLAYING MUSIC, and MIRAGE have the evolved cadence that could fit an acoustic release or performance like 21 Questions did on Double Dare. Three songs that feel like parts, each feeling like a story of the start, the good, and the abrupt depressing end of a relationship with all of the bottled-up emotions that you feel walking away from it.
The final three tracks from Jinx include TASTES LIKE TANGERINE. exploding Knight’s ego of cheating gravity by enjoying his time on cloud nine, before flowing into the penultimate ANY MINUTE NOW. This represents the comedown of cloud nine, with Knight believing that he should feel the moment anytime now of overcoming the uncertainties he felt growing up not knowing who he would become with the trials, triumphs, thrills, agony, and growth he has faced since he wanted to become a musician.
The final track is a phone call with Ginny, Awsten’s mother. There’s a conversation about men, and how the government is controlling women from having abortions and how Texas would rather let you die than to protect the wellbeing and safety of a pregnant woman or teen. Even talking about how she doesn’t want Awsten’s sister moving to Texas to be close with the family because of these horrible instances happening day in and out in the world. The chorus is straight to the point, the world has always been messed up, and girls need firearm protection by their side if the word ‘no’ one time said is too hard for a man to understand.
The experimental sounds Knight has used over the years despite the fears has found a way in each album to have its own soundtrack. JINX starts with an earthly exit interview and ends with his mother on the other line, like the growth of what Knight has become over the last decade. The mood ring around his neck has found another way to embrace self-reflection for growth as the uncertainty of the beginning has pushed him to experience a better future for when he is on another night out on earth.
The three tracks I personally will be replaying this weekend are PLAYING MUSIC, MIRAGE, and TASTES LIKE TANGERINE. Nothing here was deeply closeted like Norm Macdonald would say, in fact, each track felt like Knight pushed the envelope even harder than he ever has before, a project that I rate a 94/100.
Rami J. Hanna has written about combat and motor sports, as well sports such as baseball and basketball for a number of publications over the last ten years. In addition to his new role at CBC/DSR, Rami also recently began new roles at WrestlePurists and False Finish, and launched his own YouTube channel, VALUABLE with Rami Afif.