Album Review - Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

4/5

It is not really unusual for there to come a time in the year when I suddenly start collecting (downloading) a lot of music, which most of the time I end up being unable to listen to them, even less to do this carefully. With a new year, I had the perfect excuse to try it again, and actually, since this year I am in Finland, working/studying in the mornings, I have a lot of time in the afternoon, which I can now and then dedicate only to music, plus the free rotating streams on the Spinner site have quite help me too.

It is indeed from there that I first heard this record. Annoyed by not having any of the records on my wishlist that week, I decided to try something which read interesting from its description. As you might probably have heard already, the main advertising attraction about this album, was that it was recorded on a bedroom in a Florida University. Taking that into account, this record wins more praise, however, Surfer Blood's debut stands on its own account. The production is top-notch, for a deaf ear like mine, it shows no signs of bedroom recording, but most of all, the main attraction from this album is the guitar parts, and melody overall, it is surrounded with quite catchy songs which I had not heard being together in an album for quite a while. Take the opener Floating Vibes, and that mind drilling riff which I got stuck in my head for days. This is followed b Swim, which is probably the best song on the album, and the best example of the band's sound, a sound which is created throughout the whole running time, and which hits another highpoint with "Slow Jabroni".

Overall, Astro Coast is a solid debut, a very strong album indeed, and a candidate for being at the year's top. However, I must also say this fun album is not for everyone, since if your perception on indie rock/pop is not good, then this won't make you change your mind, though you can try. This is one of those "who knows+".

Surfer Blood - Swim (To Reach the End)


Someone has already noticed a comparison with Brian Eno's "Needles in the Camels Eye" which I can completely deny.