Beach Day Turn Down The Pop In New LP "Native Echoes"

‘Native Echoes’ is the follow up to Florida born Beach Day’s first full length album ‘Trip Trap Attack’, which established their girl-band pop meets garage grunge style. 

This modern nostalgic sound has hints of weird pop favourite ‘Friends’ in the rhythmic guitar and percussive drum beats. Their debut ‘TTA’ has a vibe similar to American rock duo Best Coast, and Drake’s voice is something of vintage Madonna meets Ronnie Spector. Her lazy tone is heightened by the echoey distortion laid onto her vocals both live and on the record, mimicking the skater boy drawl not uncommon to any American teen soap. With the guidance of Jim Diamond, the man behind The White Stripes’ first two albums, things have changed for album number two.

This newest project moves into a rockier vein with a slightly heavier and darker edge to their pop-ish sound. ‘Beach Day’ is an attitude and in this new LP, that’s exactly what has changed; there’s more attitude. In ‘Pretty’ Kimmy whines into your ears ‘who cares about being pret-ta-a-ay?’ before a distorted guitar fill enters, giving you the feeling that they’ve definitely tried to ugly up the girl-group side of their sound. And it works.

The result is a great album, modern yet nostalgic, combining the loved elements of those Florida bands to form themselves a summer road trippin’ vibe reminiscent of indiekid favourite The Drums.

‘Gnarly Waves’ provides an arty interlude, a song underscored by the sound of breaking waves, recorded on Drake’s favourite hometown beach (Hollywood Beach) in the middle of the night, ensuring the summer feel of the record remains despite being recorded in a Detroit studio in the middle of winter.

Black and Drake transport you by resting on the familiarity of their music. They use the sound of their own ‘beach day’ attitude combined with their predecessors’ sound to drive the mood of their own work. They transport us on the back of their influences to a space that is familiar, where waves peacefully and repetitively break on the shore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tK9UtIYDO0

The duo are guilty of some lazy lyricism on this album, nearly every chorus consists of some repetitive line followed by some oohs, however they use this to make the album an easy listen. Lethargic guitars and throwaway lyrics relax you into that ‘beach day’ attitude that the band replicate from their first album, letting us melt into their sunny USA, sand in your grungy converse feel.

‘Native Echoes’ is an album that would not be out of place blaring from the windows of a vehicle full of ripped-denim twenty-some-things. Beach Day have captured the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ youth rebellion and taken it on an angsty saltskin Florida holiday.

Beach Day, Native Echoes. Released 19.08.14 on Kanine Records. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Beachdayband Twitter: https://twitter.com/beachdayband Words by Graeme du Plessis

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