It started as a solo project of Dustin Payseur’s before becoming a full band; Beach Fossilsare one of the latest bands to come out of Brooklyn. They are yet another band to love the use of reverb on their hazy vocals upon sharp, trebled guitar lying on top of slack drum patterns. A sound used by many of the artists who have been introduced to the music scene in 2010.
The production on this debut album is fantastic. The guitars sound extremely fresh and literally penetrate your ear drums, while every hit of the drums and cymbals is captured perfectly, and the vocals sound as if the band is right next to you singing in your ear like a barbershop quartet, it is a great use of vocal harmonisation in all of the songs. The recording on all songs are simply exquisite.
The songs are all very mellow and easy to listen to though, while they are all somewhat catchy, show no variety in any of them. The sound is really constricted and it is never allowed to step over the boundaries for a song or two. The tempo remains constant in all songs which give the impression that they last longer than in reality.
The lack of change in styles inside Beach Fossils’ debut album is the biggest problem I have with many albums which introduce a new artist to the music world. The debut album should be full of “This is what we can do” songs full of extremities of their sound, rather than letting the audience get acquainted with the same sound continuously throughout it.
Overall:
My opinion on Beach Fossils’ sound is that it is exactly the same as Best Coast’s. It’s clean, light and calm, but there’s no variety involved in any of the songs on both albums. There’s a good chance that this album may become lost amongst all the albums that use the same slacker and relaxed, beach loving sound, especially during the sudden influx of it in 2010. I give Beach Fossils – s/t a 7/10.
