The Paradox of Wavves

There's a paradox at the heart of Nathan Williams' public persona.

On the one hand, the Wavves songwriter is seemingly eager to portray himself as a dirtbag slacker. He flaunts his drug use and heavy drinking, spends interviews talking about video games and Seinfeld, and his arms are riddled with childishly doodled tattoos. He scored a blog hit with the apathetic anthem "So Bored," and his early works were so sloppily recorded that they formed the crux of the genre known as "shitgaze." Now 27 years-old (if his date of birth on Wikipedia is to be trusted), he still resembles a teenage bad boy -- the kind of degenerate who controlling parents forbid their daughters from dating.

On the other hand, Williams is an ambitious and talented workhorse. Since 2008, he's released four full-lengths and an EP, has toured extensively, and sang a hook on the latest Big Boi album. He also formed a production duo called Sweet Valley with his brother Kynan, with whom he released three digital albums in the span of less than a year from 2012 to 2013.

And while Williams hasn't matured much in terms of his image -- just this past weekend, he was tweeting with the hashtag "#wavvesdrunktweets" -- he's undoubtedly continued to grow as a songwriter. The change began with 2010's King of the Beach, on which Williams expanded his bratty pop-punk sound to include textured psychedelia and finely wrought studio production.

Then there was 2011's Life Sux. Although a step back in terms of sonic quality, this EP found Williams penning his best-ever hooks on the bubblegum punk ditty "Nodding Off" and the dirt-crusted pop smasher "I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl."

Best yet is this year's Afraid of Heights, which is notably lacking in lyrical allusions to weed, skateboarding and hanging out at the beach. Instead, its explosively produced songs are filled with morbid paranoia and existential ruminations. Opener "Sail to the Sun" shifts from an optimistically chiming intro to a blitz of fuzzy power chords, with Williams hollering, "We'll all die alone, just the way we live."

The very next song is the grungy "Demon to Lean On," which has him once again consumed with hopelessness and singing, "Holding a gun to my head/So send me an angel/Or bury me deeply instead/With demons to lean on." A few tracks later, on the title cut, he complains, "I'll always be on my own/Fucked and alone."

These hook-filled punk songs are still Wavves' strong suit, but he uses a softer touch on "Dog" and "I Can't Dream" and tastefully employs cello and acoustic guitar. Elsewhere, he takes a stranger and more head-swimming approach to downtempo moodiness on "Everything Is My Fault" and the opening passage of "Mystic." These tunes reinforce just how much musical maturity Williams is showing these days.

That being said, if I had a daughter, I'd ground her for a month if she so much as looked in his direction.

Wavves plays at the Commodore Ballroom on Friday (Oct. 18).