Melbourne’s latest guitar legends Rolling Blackouts
Coastal Fever's first two EPs introduced a band that knew a thing or two about
making jangle pop. With one foot in the six-string chime of the '80s and
another planted firmly in the here and now, the Australian quintet crafted
plangent songs built around half-sung melodies, spiraling lines, and tempos
that had a low-key drive to them. It was a little rough around the edges, a
little unfocused at times, but on its debut album from 2018, Hope Downs, the
band has tightened things up in just the right ways and come up with something
magical. The guys in the band headed off to a remote area of Australia,
bunkered down with producer Liam Judson, and refined their sound until it shone
like a gem. More than before, the guitars have a spiky bite, the vocals come
through clearly, the rhythm section has some kick, and every song feels like a
hit. The first three songs, "An Air Conditioned Man," "Talking
Straight," and "Mainland," are breath-taking guitar pop, built
on the DNA of the Feelies, the Go-Betweens, and R.E.M. but given new life by
the emotion the three songwriters and vocalists (Fran Keaney, Tom Russo, and
Joe White) pour into the words and singing. Not to mention the thrilling
interplay of their guitars; none of them are virtuosic, but the parts they play
fit together as seamlessly as Lego pieces. The vocals also fit together nicely,
sounding just different enough that each song has its own flavour and similar
enough that their harmonies blend in a very warm and satisfying way. After the
trio of genius pop songs knock the breath out of the listener, the rest of the
record just keeps punching. Slashing rockers ("Time in Common"),
lilting songs that exude nostalgic melancholy ("Sister's Jeans") and
sweetness ("Cappuccino City"), and very Robert Forster-sounding pop
("The Hammer") combine to create the kind of album that any jangle
pop band of the '80s would have traded their Rickenbackers for. Who knows what
they would have traded to get a song as hooky and immediate as "Bellarine"
or as effortlessly heart breaking as "How Long?" Certainly few, if
any, bands of the era made an album as consistently great as Hope Downs. Not
many in Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's era have, either. It's a small-scale
triumph of hooks and guitars from a band whose members have figured it all out
and delivered a debut album that comes as close to perfect as any guitar pop
album can.
