Declan McKenna has always been adept at asking questions. In 2017, his debut album was titled What Do You Think About The Car?, featuring a track inquiring ‘Why Do You Feel So Down?’. In his 2020 single, ‘Daniel, You’re Still A Child’, he probes the title character: “Darling, why do you bury yourself in sheets?”. Fast forward three years, and McKenna is still his inquisitive self. Fresh off the vinyl press, his latest album is entitled What Happened to the Beach?, and it’ll take listeners on a journey to find out.
A lot has happened in the three-year gap between his sophomore album Zeros (2020) and WHTTB. McKenna has toured worldwide, played a halftime show for his beloved London football team Spurs FC, and perhaps most amusingly (or least amusingly, depending on who you talk to), been the victim of some light bullying on TikTok. For some users, McKenna’s resemblance to a certain left-handed bassist in the Beatles is uncanny, both in terms of appearance and vocals. When an AI-generated version of Paul McCartney singing ABBA’s ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ went viral a few months ago, fans on TikTok essentially bullied McKenna into releasing a cover due to the similarities in their voices.
Indeed, pressure is something that the British singer-songwriter has endured throughout his nearly decade-long stint in the music industry. McKenna’s first brush with fame came at age 16 when he won the 2015 Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition. His 2014 FIFA World Cup protest song, ‘Brazil’, became a signature track and ten years later it went viral on TikTok (such is the life cycle of songs these days). The combination of McKenna’s youth and his knack for wry commentary on current affairs has too often resulted in the singer-songwriter being dubbed “the voice of a generation”, despite repeated admissions that such a title makes him uncomfortable.
WHTTB sees McKenna stepping down from a soapbox he never intended to be perched on in the first place. On the record’s flagship single, ‘Sympathy’, McKenna sings a gentle reminder to himself: “You don’t need to be clever”. Its poignancy cannot be overlooked, as both What Do You Think About The Car and Zeros were chock full of commentary on topics ranging from the cost of living crisis to prejudice against transgender youth. While McKenna’s commentary has always been incisive and intelligent, it would appear he confined himself to a lyrical prison of his own making in these past two albums.
With the new record’s selection of singles, listeners can hear McKenna bursting out of that rigid box. The songs are joyful, permeated with a tongue-in-cheek humour that sees him poking fun at the character that was created for him and his ill-fated attempts to maintain it. ‘Sympathy’, ‘Nothing Works’, and ‘Elevator Hum’ all feel like McKenna’s first forays into a world unclouded by external pressure and creative stagnation. The final single, ‘Mulholland’s Dinner and Wine’ is particularly playful. Our narrator is a sleazy, arrogant character addicted to a life of opulence and extravagance, but the song is written in a way that lets us know McKenna is more than in on the joke.
It feels like for the first time in McKenna’s career - or at least since that time he covered Beyoncé’s ‘Hold Up’ in 2017 - that he is actually having fun. WHTTB is looser, laid back, almost cheeky in a way. ‘WOBBLE’, the record’s opener, is a firm declaration that things are going to be different this time around. The soundscapes on WHTTB are more varied than its predecessor, filled with acoustic guitars, horns, textured vocal effects and exotic instruments ranging from the penny whistle to the balafon. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially coming out of Zeros, which sounded like every ‘70s art rock song ever released blended into a psychedelic milkshake. In contrast, WHTTB isn’t afraid to play with open space or to take it slow, resulting in gorgeous tracks like ‘Honest Test’ and ‘It’s An Act’, towards the end of the album.
It might take a few listens to acclimatise, but What Happened to the Beach grows on you. Yet the question still persists: what actually did happen to that bloody beach after all? Maybe there aren’t any real answers. Or maybe the answers are woven into the songs somewhere, inhabiting the space where McKenna’s and the listener’s imaginations meet.