Review Summary: Beach Fossils have made an album that's fun, pretty original in its sound but don't expect any profound meanings in these tiny pop nuggets.
Beach Fossils are essentially a bunch of young guys from Brooklyn who have given themselves a name that almost sounds like it was made with a create-your-indie-band-name software. Their appearance is substantially understated and ''average'' and they do not seem to put themselves on a higher plane than their own fans, which is refreshing. Their music essentially tries to evoke moods and situations that have been made popular by a crowded current of contemporary rock: most prominently, the lyrics will often touch on suburban boredom and that pleasant sense of inertia you feel in the summer (which will remind many listeners of Real Estate).
Beach Fossils are very very skilled at writing uncomplicated songs with great hooks: their music is mostly effortless and laid back, like their name and most of their song titles suggest [Vacation, Lazy Day, Daydream..]. The lyrical content is eminently unchallenging and relatable only in the way that it is mundane: when they sing about being lazy or having nothing to do with their lives, they seem somehow numb or neutrally content with their situation. Some songs will tangentially touch on slightly more pregnant topics like love or friendships gone sour, but the subtext seems almost always to be that in fact, they don't really care. That indifferent attitude is like the Strokes minus the wit or cynicism: you won't find any ''my ex says I'm lacking in depth'', but underwhelmingly plain lines like ''I know I think too much, I know I waste my time/
And I can't figure out which one is yours or mine/ That's fine I really couldn't say I mind''.
Musically speaking, while they definitely share some common traits with the bands that deal with similar themes, they have a properly defined sound that they already seem pretty comfortable with. If I were to be scathing and shoot them down with reductive statements, I would say that essentially their ''sound'' is a two-fold gimmick. The first thing you will notice is that the music [especially the vocals] is drenched in a warm and hazy reverb. the second thing - that is more relevant to the songs themselves - is that there are two lead guitars, and no rhythm guitars. The two lead guitars interlock in creating a jittery and stimulating dialogue that is what makes these songs so appealing. In stark contrast with the reverb on the surface there is a very discreet and rigidly effective rhythm section, that reminds one of early Strokes for its simple functionality. This contrast between the backbone and the outer appearance of the songs is what makes some of these songs so interesting: at first glance they seem like a typical slightly drone-y quasi-shoegaze-y indie rock group, but in fact the songs are executed like clockwork and the riffs meticulously put together in a way that almost reminds one of electronic music: at times, more than of their contemporaries, the sound is reminiscent of Kraftwerk's forays into conventional pop songs (circa The Model).
You will certainly notice that I dedicated one paragraph to the lyrics and one to the sound, and that the latter was much longer than the former. Indeed Beach Fossils lack any sort of depth or charisma when it comes to their lyrics, and this record seems more like an attempt to create their own idiosyncratic place in the crowded panorama of indie rock: on that account they have succeeded, for the sound they have created is remarkably unique and interesting enough to overlook the emptiness of the songs' subject matter.
