This short and sweet EP starts off with it’s fantastic title track, “French Press”. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have such a sweet sound to them, there’s almost a little surf rock in there, fans of bands like Beach Fossils or old school Wavves will absolutely instantly enjoy. It’s a very jolly sound, with plenty of Jangle Pop influence. There’s a HUGE old time feel to this that really brings me back to listening to a lot of Indie Bands from the early 90’s. The vocal work on this track is absolutely the star however, mainly the harmonies that are just so wonderful. When I hear people say that Indie Rock is running out of ideas, hearing tracks like this gives me tons of jpg for the future. As the tracks goes on, everything continues to be so breezy, yet not too breezy that things get unstructured or boring. “French Press” is beautiful, yet it rocks plenty mostly in those fantastic guitar licks halfway through. What’s probably most interesting here is the song length. Honestly, I have’t heard Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever on such a long song, but even though this is five and a half minutes, it’s certainly justified. It’s a very wordy performance here, but I can listen to it over and over and I just keep getting a wonderful blend of nostalgia and hope for the future. I have nothing but high hopes for Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Up next is “Julie’s Place”, which starts off with the same sunny, jangle pop sound as the last track. I love the upbeat, sort of lo-fi Garage Rock feel to this one just so much. Not only is this all harking back to the olden days of indie rock, the simpler times as well. In the best way, there are no sub-genres or gimmicks, and boy does it ever work for them. The chorus on this one is memorable and catchy, and while it doesn’t pack quite as much punch as the opener, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever continue to be so damn likable. “Sick Bug” on the other hand has some serious meat on it’s bones. Not to say that the first few tracks were soft here by any means, but this one sure has a whole lot more bite to it. I absolutely love the snarky and youthful vocal performance here, which still somehow comes off oddly sweet at times. Hell, there’s even a weird alternative country feel in those twangy guitars that works out great for them. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever continue to take the fantastic, dreamy sounds of bands like Beach Fossils and Real Estate and put their material into a much more upbeat, garage rock anthem sort of tune, and it’s fantastic.
This EP continues on with the solid “Colours Run”. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever continue to his hard and fast, these tracks certainly don’t wast any time. No matter how upbeat and jangly these tracks get, it doesn’t really affect how smooth this all is. The vocal performance here doesn’t wow me nearly as much, but I certainly dig a whole lot of the surf rock vibe here (fans of the Hinds album from last year “Leave Me Alone” will absolutely want to check this out). No it’s nothing truly groundbreaking for the indie world, and it’s certainly not genre breaking, but man is it ever enjoyable. And while some of these tracks I wish were a little more fleshed out, just thinking about these guys making their next full length album has me seriously excited. Continuing on with “Dig Up”, I really can’t help but listen to this and not think of Real Estate or other similar bands, and that’s far from a bad thing. The material on this EP is honestly phenomenal. It’s sunny, it’s welcoming, and once again we’re dealing with a slight alternative country feel to this. Like, if you listened to some of The Men’s early records, this is actually directly up that alley. And to be honest, it’s a sound that works fantastic for these guys. While the material here continues to be nothing too ballsy or jaw dropping, not once is it boring. Vocally, this is just as smooth as the instrumentals, and once again even though this track is on the longer side it certainly doesn’t feel like it. This EP ends off with the phenomenal “Fountain of Good Fortune”. The intro to this track is one of the most memorable here, I love this sort of alternative Country feel that’s showing up here again. Between the acoustic guitar, the vocal performance, and the plinking piano’s in the background, it’s all stellar. While this EP was already fantastic, I feel like this track gives the EP a very concrete ending. Throughout “The French Press EP” Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever start their idea and end it just as strongly, which is something you really don’t see nearly as much as you would think. They honestly sound fantastic on this track, especially when those group vocals pop in for the chorus. While on their first full length album, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever were still working on their sound, their sound here is fantastic. They need to take all of the dreamy sounds they wove together here and turn this into a full length album ASAP.
Rating: 8.1/10
Give A Listen To: "French Press", "Sick Bug", "Dig Up", "Fountain of Good Fortune"
Overall Thoughts: I couldn't have been much more pleased with this EP. When I first heard of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever last summer their debut album didn't hit me as hard as I was hoping. While it was alright, I felt they hadn't really fleshed out their sound as much as they could. Here, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever find their sound, and it's brilliant. They bring in elements of Jangle Pop, Garage Rock, Surf Rock, Dream Pop, Alternative Country and more, in a brief set of tunes that really don't disappoint at all. While there's nothing that completely rewrites any books on Indie, the material here is nostalgic while looking hopefully towards the future, it's fantastic.
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