Bleached

Don't You Think You've Had Enough? (2019)

Eric Rosso

On “Valley to LA,” Bleached, comprised of Jennifer and Jessica Clavin, narrate a story of how Los Angeles imprinted itself in their younger brains. From their first three day trip to the city, paid for with a cheap bus ticket and taken in the wrong shoes that left bruises behind, they were sold. The city had “backyard parties where we dress like boys” and they confess “Operation Ivy was our drug of choice.” The song spells out why they love livin’ in the city. The freedom found on those trips from the Valley to Los Angeles is a fitting story to be told on new album Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?

Bleached have previously combined fuzzy indie rock and pop-punk to create catchy rock songs. On Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?, the buzzy guitars are replaced with syncopated bass lines and dancey atmospherics. The album opens up with three songs falling on the line between their older material and newer sound with only a few hints at what to come. “Hard to Kill” turns a Cure-like pre-chorus into some serious Hot Hot Heat vibes.

It’s on the album’s fourth track “I Get What I Need,” all the rust is kicked off Bleached’s previous foundation. The power chords take a backseat from driving and begin to provide texture to the four-on-the-floor beats. “Kiss You Goodbye” pairs straight up disco with a break up scene from a Tuesday in Los Angeles. Even when Bleached revisit moments from their past records, it’s tempered with a more aesthetic sound. “Real Life” has hand claps and punchy guitar downstrokes, but paired with a chorus that oscillates between Blondie and Madonna.

Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? finds Bleached in a nostalgic posture. Sometimes for the awkward phase when No Doubt was their north star and sometimes reflecting on the relationships that made the band. Even if Tommy was a mistake in hindsight. The lyrics are often coupled in phrases and plainly constructed. “Somebody Dial 911” captures this nicely with a love song. Clavin sings, “This is hell and I can’t hide / But you’re keeping me alive / Saying such sweet things to me / Swimming in dopamine.”

That first city experience is an indelible one for so many. It’s the first chance to see outside the horizons you’ve been previously limited too. Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? listens like a trip from the Valley into downtown Los Angeles. While Bleached are still the same indie band found on previous albums, the city has seeped it’s way into their fibers. There’s no going back home now.