BEACH FOSSILS - BUNNY
Brooklyn indie pop band Beach Fossils are back with their fourth album Bunny. The album sounds melodic and airy, the perfect accompaniment for a drive on a hot summer’s day. Beach Fossils shine with jangly dream pop songs and have delivered an album full of them. Dreamy is a good word to describe the album. It is languid and almost lethargic in sound, especially when listening from top to bottom.
Although the album is polished, it does feel like the songs lack the edge of innovation that you might expect from a band’s fourth album. The album as a whole sounds nostalgic - like the kind of songs you would hear playing in the back of a coming of age film. Like a blurry photograph of a happy memory from a few years ago, the tracks on Bunny do have a tendency of blurring into one. No songs on the album are bad, but not many stick out. It also feels familiar, as several of the opening riffs sound reminiscent of other songs before veering into what is unmistakably the Beach Fossils’ sound.
A highlight is ‘Anything is Anything,’ which has some slightly psychedelic influenced instrumentation which means that the song stands out from the rest on the album. The song lyrically follows the themes of the rest of the album. It is very meditative and introspective, with lines about ‘[looking] into myself’ and ‘[wanting] you to know that I’ve tried’. Lead singer Dustin Payseur became a father in the time before the album was released, which could explain the simple, pared back maturity of the album.
As this is the first original work Beach Fossils have put out in six years, there have been high hopes for this record. The band does not disappoint - it is a pleasant record. It is perfect for putting on in the background whilst you are doing something else, but to be truly great an album needs to demand your attention. Their early work has a certain DIY frenetic energy of an artist starting out and finding their sound. Bunny, although lush and technically proficient, unfortunately lacks a certain edge and drive found elsewhere in Beach Fossil’s catalogue.
Alex Cooke
★★★☆☆