What’s
the first thing that comes into your head when someone mentions Australia?
Long, flowing beaches full of white sand, barbecues piled with shrimp and
burgers, vegemite on toast… How about musically? Sure, there’s
AC/DC, and if you’re metal-savvy, you’ll
know Oz is a hot spot for the heavy at the moment. San Cisco, however,
completely buck that trend - hailing from Fremantle, a city a few miles outside
of Perth, their newest EP, Beach,
pretty much encapsulates summer.
Lover kicks things off with the scat-singing
that propelled debut single Awkward
into the public eye - nothing wrong with sticking to what you’re
good at, of course. It’s a happy, bouncy song that skips from
ear to ear like the corks on the Aussie fedora, and wouldn’t
sound out of place at a summer pool party. Next track Golden Revolver keeps this trend going; one can almost feel warm
sunshine poking through as lead vocalist Jordi and drummer Scarlett chant the
chorus atop an insouciant cowbell.
Title track Beach never threatens to break the formula, bumbling along very
much in the same vein; a strong undercurrent of bass carries the whole song on
its way. The childlike vocals in the chorus arrive with absolutely no warning,
and the juxtaposition drags the song back down into pop’s
mucky paws. Closer Reckless tries a
rather different tack, feeling almost like a comedown to begin with - it
threatens to be the token acoustic track, but thankfully an electric edge, in
the form of a keyboard riff, saves the day. Be that as it may, the song is a
more heartfelt, lyric-based affair than the earlier songs would suggest.
While their youth and exuberance may
not be to everyone’s taste (it does have downsides like
weaker vocals, for instance), San Cisco set out to provide a sampler of the
Fremantle summer in musical form. And if this is truly their be all and end
all, in the four tracks that make up Beach they deliver perfection, proving that there may well be more to the
indie-pop group than just one catchy YouTube hit.
Beach by San Cisco is out on December 10 via Columbia Records.
JS
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