written by Chris Familton

Beach Fossils are another in the line of recent emerging acts from the USA that embrace the jangling, shimmering side of indie. Bands like Girls, Best Coast, The Drums and Vivian Girls all strip things back to the key elements of mood and melody, with a nostalgic haze drifting across the music. On their debut, Beach Fossils have captured that sound perfectly over 30 mins of wonderfully measured pop music.

Interestingly, the album sounds neutral or equally measured in terms of its American and English influences. There are stripped down Velvet Underground references colliding with The Cure, Flying Nun lo-fi strumming filtered through New Order’s bass and guitar riffery. In many ways they are an interesting counterpoint to The Xx who rewire indie and electronica with similar intent.

With On Daydream they combine all of these musical elements to the greatest effect. The result is endlessly hummable, wistful and melancholic in a refreshing way. It’s riffs are familiar without plagiarism, invoking that mid 80s innocence where post punk, pop and shoegaze merged.

Singer/songwriter and central figure Dustin Payseur wrote the songs after a move from North Carolina to Brooklyn and was seeking to reconnect with his past and the landscape he left behind. He does this in two ways. Firstly, by using recordings of birds and the ocean on Golden Age and Gathering he provides an aural backdrop that effectively takes the song away from Brooklyn and back to nature. It is a simple technique that works surprisingly well. The other way Payseur positions the songs is by invoking a coastal feel with surf tinged guitars – all brittle and thin, caked in ghostly reverb to get that misty eyed nostalgia happening.

Vocally Payseur is fairly non-descript in his style. The words are often obscured by his soft voice and the effects that have him floating above the music, untethered. It is a production characteristic also employed by Ariel Pink, essentially treating the vocal as an instrument of mood and melody rather than the usual focus on the words and their intent. Youth is a great example of the way the words counter the chiming guitar notes, making simple music sound much more than the sum of its parts.

It is hard to envisage how Beach Fossil’s sound will develop on future albums or if they will stick to the template of their debut and fade from view after a couple of releases. Regardless, we should embrace them for what they are now – a cleaver and understated guitar pop band who look back, both literally in terms of the construction of their music and subsequently with the mood it generates.

This review first appeared on FasterLouder