Beach Fossils - "Somersault"

Beach Fossils for the last two years have jumped on the Dream Pop hype train, but have mixed in some more upbeat rhythms and surf rock sounds among other elements.  With their 2010 debut, I certainly liked the mixture of all of these sounds.  The atmosphere was breezy and the guitar licks were smooth.  But the tracks while I enjoyed them, lacked lasting power and kinda floated in one ear and right out the other.  However, Beach Fossils quickly turned things around with their "What A Pleasure" EP.  This EP was so much more memorable, event though it was only about 20 minutes long.  The production on this EP really helped bring out some of the hooks and vocals more, not to mention the very dreamy atmosphere came off SO much better.  In 2013, Beach Fossils really started to set themselves apart in a BIG way.  With the release of their "Clash The Truth" album, Beach Fossils broke through the dreamy layers of clouds their music seemed to be sitting in for a much darker and edgier album.  The resulting songs still had a very sweet airy vibe to them, but were also punchier and not nearly as dreary.  Beach Fossils had seemed to really get that great balance down between more Airy Dream Pop and catchy Indie Rock.  It's been a while since we've heard from Beach Fossils' however, but I was certainly interested in how their sound has progressed.  And boy howdy, has it ever changed! Let's talk about it.

This album starts out with “This Year”, and right off the bat I just love the very breezy atmosphere and the jangle pop undertones.  Beach Fossils have almost completely tossed away their slight surf rock vibe, but then again they’ve completely changed everything about their sound to be honest.  It’s upbeat, it’s light and airy, and the vocals aren’t completely obscured by the cloudiness of everything.   Lyrically this is just as sweet and gentle, but they’ve come such a long way since the very early days of the band that the lyrics are also so much more coherent.  It’s easy to dive into and comprehend almost immediately.  But this is going to lead to the first issue here, it’s not an issue I have but others certainly will.  Beach Fossils are so much more than just a dreamy post punk band, they’re much more.  They’re their own band, one that has all of this wonderful added instrumentation including these string that add this incredible sense of longing.  “This Year” is a wonderful single.  Up next is “Tangerine” featuring Rachel Goswell, and I’m seriously digging the continued upbeat feel to everything.  In moments like this, I feel like a cloud has completely lifted from the music of Beach Fossils.  Their guitar licks just seem so much more down to earth and jangly.  It’s a jolly sound, it’s upbeat, and I love the very airy vocals as well, it almost reminds me of some of the late 90’s Psych Pop revival acts.  That being said, the dream pop fans will continue to be entertained by this quite a bit.  But at the same time, the rock elements here are present enough to cement this as a Beach Fossils track.  I think the bet thing about the instrumentals on “Tangerine” is just how much more thought out and well planned they seem.  This album so far has featured some of the most mature tracks Beach Fossils’ have ever recorded.  Those strings continue to be a real knock out for me,  not to mention Rachel Goswell’s duet vocals add to the very airy atmosphere of this track.  “Saint Ivy” is up next, and up until this point there has been a slight synthetic vibe to some of these tracks (mostly due to the occasional drum machine hits).  But “Saint Ivy” is easily the most rock oriented track we’ve heard so far, to the point where to be honest, this sounds like nothing we’ve ever heard from Beach Fossils’.  Bizarrely enough, there’s almost a classic rock vibe to this that works out for Beach Fossils really nicely.  I love the continued use of the strings, and the very patient instrumentals on “Saint Ivy”.  I’m not used to hearing Beach Fossil’s at such a relaxed pace, but it adds to their atmosphere really nicely.  Beach Fossils’ sound has become so much broader, it’s seriously a night and day comparison to some of their early tunes.  But just when I think I’ve heard it all from these guys, these seriously elegant and very classy Jazz based solos roll in.  What even is this anymore?  I sure as hell love it though.  I do feel like Beach Fossils have been boning up on their Dad Rock though. But if you’re going to go all out and go with this vibe, I’d rather listen to THIS than a whole lot of other bands.  Then we have tracks like “May 1st” which focus hard on those very funky bass licks that brings me back to the early days of the “What A Pleasure” EP.  “May 1st” is certainly more along the lines of what you would expect to hear from Beach Fossils.  But I think the best element on this on are the vocals.  The delivery from Dustin Payseur here is just so freaking cool.  It’s just dreamy enough to give it a very hip vibe, but it’s coherent enough to remain not too sleepy.  It’s an above average dream pop/jangle pop track, but I think this one goes a little deeper.  Up until now, while I’ve loved this album, I haven’t gotten one track that sounds like Beach Fossils.  But now, hearing “May 1st”, I can be happy.  

Sadly though, Beach Fossils his a slight hiccup with “Rise” featuring Cities Aviv.  Cities Aviv’s presence was pretty strong on that Show Me The Body mixtape earlier this year.  But he really wasn’t needed here at all.  Instrumentally, “Rise” is just what I wanted to hear.  But then  Cities comes in with this kinda cliche monologue that I’d rather just tune out to be honest.  But then Beach Fossils come back and hit hard with “Sugar, which is instantly everything I could have asked for.  I love the very dreamy bass and the guitar licks with the strings taking the backseat.  But it’s done in a classy way that gives this track a very vast feel.  Going into this album, I really didn’t know what I wanted to hear from these guys, and if this is seriously too dreamy for you, trust me I get it.  But for me, it’s the hazy and dreamy rock album that I wanted to hear this year.  Also, I feel like their performance just comes off so cool, I can totally picture them performing this at some Art Show somewhere with all of them wearing sunglasses.  Hell yes “Sugar” is great.  Up next is one other slight hiccup for me, “Closer Everywhere”.  To be honest, this one has a lot of really great qualities though.  I love the strings once again, and Payseur’s vocals are a real home run.  Bur for a slower paced track, I feel like there have been better ones throughout this album.  Plus, some of the keyboards are a turn off for me.  I feel like while a selling point of this album has been its dreaminess, “Closer Everywhere” is just a little too dreamy.  So much so, that when those guitars pop in around the 2 minute mark I’m ecstatic to hear a little switch-up. “Closer Everywhere” has tons of great components, but overall this one doesn’t work for me.  “Social Jetlag” on the other hand right off the bat has a seriously cool vibe to it.  I love the almost Low-Fi production on this one, veiling every instrumental with a thick layer of fuzz.  Here, the much more patient instrumentals come off so pleasant and easy to dive into.  The pianos are very elegant, and Dustin Payseur’s performance comes off so strong and once again has a serious sense of longing.  A lot of these instrumentals I honestly thought would never pop up in a Beach Fossils track, but I’m glad they did.  But at the same time, “Social Jetlag” is so hip, from the occasional glitchy production bits to the almost Post-Jazz feel in other parts.  It’s a very lonely sound, but man does it every work for Beach Fossils.  

Now, for anyone who's falling asleep or maybe isn’t as into this new sound of Beach Fossils, we have tracks like “Down The Line”.  This one is much more upbeat, and anyone whose a fan of older Beach Fossils tracks will instantly connect with this.  The upbeat bass here is refreshing and I absolutely love the hook.  But for me, lyrically this one takes a nose dive.  I want to love this track, but then I hear these unbelievably snobbish and hipster lyrics here that make me cringe and have me rethinking a whole lot of this album.  Thankfully though, “Down The Line” is catchy enough to be passable.  At this point, I can handle another slow track, and “Be Nothing” is just epic enough to do the trick.  These instrumentals here are just so graceful and well done.  This is easily the most delicate track I’ve heard here, maybe on any Beach Fossils album.  It works though for the band, and while “Be Nothing isn’t nearly as catchy, it’s a different sort of throwback for them with just the right amount of dreamy atmosphere.  It has a serious epic feel to it that I love as well, and almost a Post-Grunge feel in a weird way.  But at this point, I barely know what Beach Fossils are going to throw at us next.  Which means when this track builds up to a more upbeat, Post Punk sound they’re known for, all I can say is “YES”.  This album ends off on a fairly old school note for Beach Fossils with “That’s All For Now”.  To be honest, I’m glad they’re ending this album off on a more upbeat note. It’s a dreamy track, it’s catchy, and it’s probably the closest thing we’ve heard to a classic sounding Beach Fossils tracks we’ve heard here.  

Rating : 8.0/10

Give A Listen To:  “This Year”, “Social Jetlag”, “May 1st”, “Sugar”

Overall Thoughts:  Beach Fossils on this one take a little while to come out of their usual very cloudy, Low-Fi atmosphere.  The result is clearly their most mature and most planned out album yet.  The songs here still have a very dreamy feel to them, but the real standout are these seriously elegant strings and horns that Beach Fossils bring along for the ride.  It's not a perfect album, but it's clearly their most diverse album yet, one that really sets them aside from the rest of the Dream Pop community right now.