I don’t know if it makes me want to return to another place or time, but Beach Fossils’ second album, Clash The Truth, is full of music some people might call nostalgic. What that means to me, is that it calls up a feeling in the middle of my stomach akin to equal parts physical desire, a world of possibility, and satisfying loneliness. It might be different for you.
Call it what you want, but Beach Fossils’ music
reaches me at a physiological level at which years of experience, and even
painful memories, melt away into a sweet little puddle of excitement. Maybe
when we say nostalgic, what we mean to say is youthful.
Clash The Truth follows
a 2011 EP, What a Pleasure, and the 2010
debut album, Beach Fossils, all of which
came out to positive reviews. Their sound has developed into something more
traditional in nature on Clash The Truth: it’s dream pop done very well. So well, Kazo Makino—Blonde Redhead’s incredible
sexual kitten, (subtle, breathless)—is featured on the track, “In Vertigo.”
I love that on the opening track, “Clash The Truth,” the
stairway of exclamations (my written interpretation: dream, rebel, trust, youth; free,
life, clash, the truth; real time, gone through, peace, piss, shine proof…etc.)
is exhausted by the top. Each step gets a bit louder, a bit bolder, but mostly,
more exhausted. This album is so much like climbing into adulthood, I wonder
why I wasn't as aware of it at the time as lead Dustin Payseur. “Sleep Apnea,”
for example, easily captures the feeling of trying to care about someone, but
not having the energy to.
Beach Fossils' lyrics and music are as in sync as the real-life
substance is disjointed. The wash of guitar, slim, pretty vocals, and rustic
atmosphere definitely make you feel something, it’s just not certain who it is
yet.
Grade: A-
Grade: A-
Can't wait to see em at Tralf in a few weeks