Waterparks Debuts Their ‘Greatest Hits’

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The band’s newest album will release on May 21.

Julia Conant, Lifestyle Editor

The alternative band, Waterparks, is releasing new music and it’s different from anything fans of the band have heard before.

Their upcoming album is slated to be released on May 21 of this year and will have 17 tracks.

Waterparks follows alphabetical order when releasing records. Their three EPs are titled “Airplane Conversations,” “Black Light” and “Cluster.” Their three following studio albums are titled “Double Dare,” “Entertainment” and “FANDOM.”

 Their upcoming album is confirmed to be titled “Greatest Hits.”

Despite what the name suggests, the new album will not be a compilation of the band’s most popular hits thus far. Only two of the songs on the album have been released as of today. Track three, “Lowkey As Hell” was released on Sep. 25 of last year and track six, “Snow Globe” was released last Friday, Feb. 26.

Waterparks has been releasing music since 2012. Their earlier material was more rooted in punk rock, featuring heavy drums, loud guitars and punchy vocals. However, as they developed as a band, they have tended to stray more toward the electronic and indie side of alternative music.

“Snow Globe” seems to rebel against fans’ previous objections to the progression of Waterparks’ sound. The song heavily features auto-tune, which has been a point of contention for some fans.

“I put auto-tune on ‘Worst’ and / Caught all their disgust,” frontman Knight sang on the song “Watch What Happens Next.” This line references when Waterparks released an early demo of “Worst,” which featured auto-tune. Some listeners didn’t like this change, and criticized the band for it.

Knight has expressed his discomfort with fans ruling over his career and life through song lyrics before. During the bridge of “Watch What Happens Next,” Knight says the fans basically respond to him asking if Waterparks can try new sounds by saying, “Go f*ck yourself.”

“Snow Globe” begins with an unsettling combination of rushed piano notes and white noise that progressively becomes louder. This leads into a more calming piano melody and the first verse.

Knight sings about a repeated nightmare, brought on by the meaningless of his fans’ praise for him.

“Cause all I hear is, ‘I love you so much’ / But it starts to mean nothing / When my heart is shut from you,” Knight sings.

The refrain is where the backbeat and bassline come into play. Knight lowers the pitch of his voice as he compares his life to a snow globe and tells the listeners to “shake him up.”

Backing vocals provide “ooo”s and “aaa”s during the chorus, as Knight recounts the recurring arguments he has with himself in his head.

Knight sings, “In the daytime, I get to debate myself / And quiet all the evil things I say like / ‘Everybody hates you’ / ‘People miss the old you’ / ‘They hate everything that they all changed you into’”

This idea of Knight’s world being a snow globe is only emphasized in the second verse, when Knight repeats, “My tiny little world is in your hands / So shake it like a snow globe, f*ck my plans.”

As the song comes to a close, there are two sets of overlapping vocals. The primary vocals sing that this song is the soundtrack to, “giving up,” “living down” and “getting out.”

The secondary, quieter vocals repeat, “I don’t have the sympathy, I think that you need more from me / If life is just a game, then I’mma flip the board and break the peace.”

The music video was released shortly after the song and features Waterparks performing the song in low light. Underwhelming, but not necessarily bad.

Keep an eye on Waterparks over the next few months if you’re curious to hear the rest of the album.