Surfer Blood - AstroCoast

Thu 3rd Jun, 2010 in Music Reviews

Though they were already heavily touted as the Next Big Thing in 2009, Surfer Blood seem like an unlikely hipster favourite. Admittedly, they feel a bit like a guitar-pop take on the whole ‘chillwave’ genre, but there’s more Cheap Trick and the Shins than Neon Indian in Astro Coast.

With such influences, it’s hard to hear Surfer Blood as a cutting-edge act, but it doesn’t stop them being a hell of a lot of fun. Lead single and most impressive track Swim wears its love for Cheap Trick on its skinny sleeve, sounding like a reverb-heavy indie love note to Surrender. With indecipherable vocals (outside of the chorus’s urgent cry of “swim to reach the end”), it sounds purpose-built for sunny festival singalongs.

Twin Peaks is less of a David Lynch love-fest than you might think, instead using the bizarre director’s catalogue as a shortcut to memories of better times (“let’s make fun at the video store/with Blue Velvet and other titles”), before a relationship soured. It sounds counter-intuitive, but Surfer Blood outfit the track with enough vitality to turn such unlikely ideas into vibrant, messy fun.

Much of the rest of the album flits between murky surf-rock ( Harmonix and stoned tropicalia ( Take It Easy ), giving off lots of good-time, summer-sun vibes. The hazy nature of the album, plus Surfer Blood’s tendency towards sonic left-turns, leaves much of the material blurred into one. This is both a blessing and a curse: the album itself is enjoyable, bright stuff, but a little inconsequential. Astro Coast sounds like perfect background music for pool parties and cocktails, without really offering anything in the way of standout moments once you get past Swim.

Surfer Blood’s natural environment seems to be the stage, given the immediacy of their energy and the effortless way they manage to broadcast such positive vibes. ’Vibes’ really is the operative word: Astro Coast ’s appeal has that intangible, slightly druggy feel that you’ll struggle to describe to your friends once the sun has gone down at whatever summer festival you saw. And, like that festival, you’ll get a warm feeling when you think back on Astro Coast – you won’t remember why, but the feeling is still real.