BEACH FOSSILS - Somersault

Let's be honest: Beach Fossils have always been less a band in the traditional sense than a vehicle for James Dustin Payseur's fantasies. It's thanks to his drive and sheer stubbornness that the American outfit has managed to survive constant rifts and departures that have ultimately reshaped its stylistic direction. And now that Tommy Gardner too has left the group, the decision to part ways with Captured Tracks looks like a sign of Payseur's full autonomy and self-awareness, along with that of his most loyal collaborators.

The band's third album partly overturns their stylistic approach, replacing the old chiaroscuro with a surprising source of light and color.

Just when hardly anyone expected it, and at the very moment other jangle pop heroes are groping around for inspiration (Real Estate, Hoops), Beach Fossils pull ahead of the pack with the perfect summer record: a varied, intriguing album that, much like the latest Mac DeMarco, pays tribute to the golden age of easy listening and 70s soft-rock.

"Somersault" delivers thirty-five minutes of flawless harmonic craftsmanship, eleven pop songs dressed in cascades of crystalline guitar tones, gentle rhythmic flows, ethereal vocals, delightful string arrangements and, believe it or not, flutes, pianos, saxophones and harpsichords.

While the putative fathers of chamber-pop (Zombies) tour the world performing their ("Odyssey And Oracle") live, James Payseur finally gives full shape to his love of the Sixties, publicly declared in the TV series "Vinyl".

No uncertainty, no faltering, perhaps no single standout peak (except for "Be Nothing"?), but without a doubt "Somersault" is the American band's most convincing and accomplished record yet. The surf naivety of their debut and the uncertainties of "Clash The Truth" are now just a memory: even when melancholy prevails, it's simplicity and lyrical candor that win out.

It's the strings that are the real engine of Beach Fossils' stylistic renewal: it's their job to thin out that melodramatic, falsely aggressive air that had captured Payseur's ambitions. The songs are intimate, the vocal harmonies are warm and enveloping, the atmosphere is almost evanescent, but above all the songs display a variety that was previously alien to the band.

The more elaborate, refined arrangements actually risked smothering the songs' deliberate fragility in pompous, redundant sounds; luckily the jangle pop of "Somersault" is just mature enough, ready to leave behind the lo-fi obsessions of the past and finally free to get contaminated and get its hands dirty.

And that's exactly what happens in two key tracks on the album: the unexpected jazz-tinged soul-rap of "Rise", where rapper Cities Aviv duets with a brooding sax, and the mischievous trip-hop of "Social Jetlag", which unfolds amid delightful breakbeats, a piano and the muffled tones of a flute, letting almost mainstream r&b suggestions flow through.

While "This Year" and "Down The Line" reassure longtime fans by confirming the band's ability to shape little déjà-vu gems, some more ambitious and intricate songs reveal a stylistic evolution that is as surprising as it is engaging. On one side, the electro-acoustic ballad in the style of the Byrds ("May 1st") and the enchanting midtempo of "Sugar", seasoned with vintage synth sounds and a sticky refrain, certify the maturity of the band's songwriting; on the other, the long (five-minute) and unpredictable "Be Nothing" defies the hit-and-run logic of so much modern pop, combining Crosby, Stills & Nash-style harmonies, a Cure-like bassline and a guitar break poised between shoegaze and faux-grunge, giving us one of the most compelling songs of this "modern psychedelic folk-pop".

Further proof of Beach Fossils' new stylistic direction comes from the small cameo by Rachel Goswell of Slowdive, a splendid vocal accomplice on that gem poised between the innocence of Sarah Records and the refined, sun-drenched harmonies of the Pearlfishers, titled "Tangerine" — a track that, even in its title, encapsulates all the psych-pop imagery that the American band refines with just the right dose of naturalness and verve.

Summer is just around the corner, and it's time to put together your soundtrack. So don't forget "Somersault", and you'll come back from your holidays with an extra smile.

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09/06/2017