Light. Love. Luck.
Then, some bad luck; a curse even. One followed by so many unanswered questions, begging for any sort of answer or solace or comfort or relief.
And then, more love. Lots of it.
These are just some of the many omens floating around Waterparks’ sixth studio album JINX, an existential 13-track quest that desperately tries to find and solve the true meaning of life and one’s purpose — but is that even possible? The Houston trio takes trips through heaven, hell and Milwaukee, anxiously spilling their guts on things that have previously felt taboo in music — sex, abortion, money and even hating half of their own fanbase — and turns it into something palpably grounded; not to mention extremely catchy.
JINX feels like a can of worms opening up, while frontman Awsten Knight is unable to stop spilling and spiraling. Afterall, this album is the culmination of three long years since their last studio release, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, consisting of not only hard work on music, but also self-reflection and rebuilding.
If listeners take anything from JINX, it’s that it’s okay to not know everything, whether that’s about yourself or about the world. After 40 minutes of sonic sorrow, joy, pain and love, listeners still can take home the comfort of not being alone in their thoughts, the good and the bad.
Waterparks — the band of vocalist Knight, guitarist Geoff Wigington and drummer Otto Wood — are no stranger to record label shopping, but 2024 was different. They quickly found themselves leaving their longtime management partner, cutting ties with their label and crew, and cancelling their fifth album’s sequel INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 2: LOST IN THE PROPERTY.
Some say everything happens for a reason, and while all of Waterparks’ actions are enough to send anyone into a spiral, it certainly led to some of the band’s greatest pieces of work. Knight has thoughts, maybe too many at times, but that’s where JINX really shines; its innate nature to keep one’s mind bouncing off the walls, taking a peak inside of the singer’s manic world — then seeing it reflected onto your own.
This world is perfectly constructed from the very beginning:
“If the only point in life is not to die / Can you tell me why?”
The album starts off in the most interesting way it possibly could’ve: Knight is killed and travels to both heaven and hell (with the help of Eric Nally’s God, Danny Elfman’s Devil, Mark Hoppus’ purgatory agent and Dillon Francis’ many voices) and asks the most existential life questions along the way, all intertwined to create a three-and-a-half minute sonically-animated story from beginning to end.
The concept of the song is one of the most captivating of the entire album. As Knight strums acoustically and softly sings the intro, a news anchor voice creeps in from the background, announcing the singer’s untimely death. We learn Knight has woken up for an “earthly exit interview,” a nod to the purgatory between heaven and hell. After an all-too annoying trip to the DMV, Knight wished to die. And, well, God decided to grant it:
“You said, ‘God please kill me now’ / We decided to help you out / Now you are here and here is now / Why the fuck’s he freaking out?”
Knight spends the rest of the song continuing to question the purpose of life, a frantically rock- and synth-fused track that hinges on its creative production and addicting vocal enunciations by the features, perfectly playing into each of their exaggerated characters.
Elfman drags Knight down to hell to explain an alternate solution to why he’s actually dead, with references to transitionary track “SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN” and finger-pointing at the way Knight has actually treated his life, such as using “people as possessions” and acting like “a bitch.” The evil, brooding guitar solo on the elevator ride brings listeners down to the flames with our characters, the heat of the chords that will for sure be felt in the live setting.
After Knight is revealed to in fact be alive, he’s beamed back up to a hospital bed. Even after his entire plane-transcending journey, Knight still doesn’t have any more answers than when he first died, ending the song the same way it started: a slow-strumming plea of “why?”
As “TELL ME WHY” comes to an end, it feels like the fourth wall has been broken; as if Waterparks tore a rift in the space time continuum, unsure of what layers will be peeled back next, or what secrets will come rattling out. The introduction track asked many questions, the majority being the simply-asked, but loaded “Can you tell me why?”, and it feels like the 12 tracks that follow attempt to either answer this question, or carve us deeper into an existential psychosis, wondering truly if there is a point of this existence.
The transition into the next track, the album’s lead single “RED GUITAR,” was certainly purposeful, as it explores the ins and outs of life’s purpose once more, but this time it’s centered more on the childlike dreams of becoming a rockstar and how it can crush spirits with its “ruthless” realities. Further singles follow, with “IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL” and “PROWLER” flowing perfectly into each other while furthering Knight’s existential push-and-pull of the music industry between antagonistic fans and executives alike.
Much of JINX rides the highest highs just as much as it rides the lowest lows; just like the “light, love, luck” mantra floating around this album’s promotion cycle, something that hits all facets of the life experience. Listeners get their first taste of the upward swing with the most recent single “BETTER THAN THERAPY,” a three-minute guitar-studded track about someone being greater than any sort of professional help one could seek, and how dangerously good it feels slipping into it.
“If everything’s what it takes / Well then that’s just what I’ll pay / And I don’t mind the bend when I’m willing to break / I want you” Knight sings in “NO NO NO NO NO.”
Love certainly rings true throughout the album, seen in tracks like the sensual, R&B-fused “NOBODY BUT YOU” and two songs destined for a place in a pop-punk coming-of-age soundtrack: “NO NO NO NO NO” and “PLAYING MUSIC.” While these are self-described “lover boy” tracks by Knight himself, what makes a Waterparks love song stand out are their underlying (or obvious) fears of isolation while coping with strong senses of codependency and desire.
Through yearning vocals in “PLAYING MUSIC” — whose namesake comes from a line in the 2020 Pixar film SOUL — listeners can feel Knight’s fragility and just how much his insecurity eats away at his core, regardless of the joy and love that he feels inside. As much as this song pleads for a lover to not change their mind on him (a concept that truly shines in the soft, repetitive outro), it also acts as a sonic love letter to the art of music itself, as seen in the film it’s inspired from.
“What would I do / If I ever lost you?”
While JINX is clearly fresh, Knight does a great job at hitting each genre directly on the head, giving listeners a full plate to be desired. Some tracks feel like Waterparks territory the world has not yet charted, while others feel reminiscent to their earlier days. “GWEN STEFANI,” the seventh track, is somehow a mix of both.
The song takes a hip-hop-like approach, slowly building up as Knight spirals completely out of his mind, to the point of giving up on life, making hyper-specific references to his own self:
“Passport, new name / Jump another plane, relocate / Turn off caps lock / Dye my hair brown cut it all off / I’m passing out flyers in the rain / Tears streaming down my face”
The song is unique in many ways. For starters, it’s one of the most widely known and sought-after Waterparks demos, originally being a contender for the 2021 album Greatest Hits. Knight has always said he would never release a demo without it being the utmost perfect version, and they blew past my expectations with the JINX edition of “GWEN STEFANI.”
An antisocial person’s anthem (or nightmare, considering how on-the-nose it is), the track is complete with manic-episodal choruses and anxiously-avoidant verses that highlight the human experience of not quite fitting in wherever you end up.
“Why does time heal everything but me?” Knight pleads in “MIRAGE”
“MIRAGE” and “TASTES LIKE TANGERINE” are back-to-back tracks that feel like whiplash. The former is a stunning orchestral cry for help, with arguably some of Knight’s greatest vocals and lyrics. The latter, however, is the upbeat, fight-or-flight music Waterparks has been excelling at for the last decade.
Derived from a sidelined instrumental for Knight’s video game side-project nearly two years ago, “TASTES LIKE TANGERINE” feels like everything big from modern-day Waterparks — think “RITUAL,” “LIKE IT” AND “MAGNETIC.” The song is epically electronic and harsh, built from scratch with intention to make the hairs on listeners’ arms rise with the synths and heavy drums.
The song feels like a smooth victory lap around any doubters, which feels ironic considering the track next in line, “ANY MINUTE NOW,” is about not knowing when in life everything will finally make sense, with Knight seemingly second-guessing his own progress and feeling unfilled.
Photo Credit: Ashley Osborn
If it hasn’t been made abundantly clear yet, Waterparks’ JINX has intense thoughts on a multitude of topics, and this isn’t just something that’s kept for the studio. Knight has consistently been vocal about the current American administration online, sharing his opinions just as much as resources and donation links to make a change. “GIRLS NEED GUNS,” the closing track on JINX, feels a little different than loud social media protests. Instead, Knight recorded an emotional phone conversation with his own mother, letting her experiences and opinions of womanhood fuel the verses while he tackles the chorus.
“Little by little / One by one / Mothers grow to fear their own damn sons / And if the past’s a sign of what’s to come / The world’s fucked up / The girls need guns”
There’s many songs that make listeners feel deep emotion, but I have never heard a song that evokes such a stinging feeling like that found in “GIRLS NEED GUNS.” What makes this song different is how it is not a world to escape to. We aren’t even hearing about Knight anymore — if anything, this song is what pulls listeners out of JINX’s existential flee and grounds them into reality.
Through a conversation with her son, Knight’s mother remembers when abortion became legal through Roe v. Wade back in 1973, and heartbreakingly admits how she’s watched the world shift and adjust for the worst since then after the decision’s overturning in 2022.
The contents of “GIRLS NEED GUNS” is nothing we haven’t heard before, though, as news outlets and social media throw opinions on abortion at viewers left and right constantly. This song, however, puts a bittersweet feeling in listeners’ hearts that these meaningful conversations can be had and can be heard. As much as it is a human rights declaration, it also acts like a warm hug within everything that feels so dark and gloomy, as if this is a parent you can turn to for comfort.
Knight ends the track with him and his mother saying goodbye, a gentle reminder that life — as terrible as it may be — keeps moving, keeps evolving, but love remains at the center of it all.
KNIGHT’S MOM: I’m so proud of you.
KNIGHT: Thank you.
KNIGHT’S MOM: I love you very, very much.
KNIGHT: I love you, too.
KNIGHT’S MOM: I want you to be safe, please.
KNIGHT: Okay, you too.
KNIGHT’S MOM: Okay. Alright honey, we’ll talk soon.
KNIGHT: Okay. Alright, bye.
KNIGHT’S MOM: Bye.
It’s up to interpretation whether or not Knight finds his solace or answers at the end of the album, but I think the 13 songs highlight the sweet fluidity and unpredictability of life; how it ebbs and flows and rises and falls when you least expect it.
JINX is proof that highs and lows of life build you brick by brick, which is seen abundantly clear as each synth, drum, lyric, vocal and emotion felt in this album is evidence of more than three years of constant drive from Waterparks, even when life was throwing them off course.
Waterparks is a band that can go anywhere and do anything, and JINX feels like a true reflection of their current abilities, growth and the trust in themselves to write and produce music that no one else is making. Each album manages to top the last and showcases a brand new set of skills from the trio, all while still keeping that same loveable core that millions have fallen in love with over the years.
So, listen to JINX and then listen again even closer — you may be more jinxed than you originally thought.
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