Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils

The band’s name gives you a clue of what they’ll sound like: As a listener you are the archaeologist discovering the fossilised remnants of The Beach Boys that have been weathered overtime by 1970’s American lo-Fi resulting in catchy guitar rhythm and drone tone vocals.

This band is fighting against time. Producing an album fitting for probably any decade prior to the present, they manage to create a listen that does not exhaust their influences but transmits the cool and retro. It’s a great introduction to anyone interested in music been and gone.

Like many present bands, Beach Fossils employ the jangled guitars and neat drums producing a compact sound. But this sound is accompanied by a thick layer of ambience throughout the album which effectively reduces the album from a train made up of eleven carriages to one long single carriage diverting every two to four minutes. It feels like a never ending ride that comes to an abrupt end all too soon, “And the seconds to slow but the moment’s all too fast”

Having said this, range would be nice. Listening to it for the first time you feel as though it’s magic, but once it’s over you wonder what you spent thirty odd minutes listening to. The second time and you wait for the magic you heard the last time and aside from a few sprinkles of gold dust, ‘Daydream’, ‘Youth’ and ‘Wide Awake’ are my particular favourites, the rest is just dark matter: it’s there but not quite there, hidden for the next album perhaps.

Beach Fossils make fine pop music suited for your washed-up ex stoner father to your hipster friend. This is only their first album and, as any good debut should, it leaves you wanting more.

Listen to: Youth, Daydream, Golden Age, Wide Awake

7/10