Release Date: Oct. 25, 2011
Remarkably simple and uncluttered with frills, Surfer Blood makes creating good music seem easy. The group picked up right where it left off on Astro Coast with its new EP, Tarot Classics.
Well, for awhile, that is.
No song on Tarot quite reaches the energetic zenith set by the band’s 2009 hit single “Swim,” and instead, for the first few tracks, it hints toward sonically dipping into a distancing (but not angsty) downheartedness without ever quite making the jump. And Surfer Blood does this loudly, confidently, as if to reassure you that the band’s emotional instability is nothing to worry about. The rock is supposed to bring the listener up, not down.
Great tracks composed of uncomplicated guitar riffs inject life into the sounds of early 1990s alt-rock. Tarot stands alone but feels led to where it stands by Weezer’s Blue Album and Pinkerton.
At least for the first few tracks.
In the latter half of the album, the group assuredly strides into a sampled and drum-machined overhaul, two songs of which are remixes of earlier tracks: “Drinking Problem” and “Voyager Reprise.” These three later tracks, compared with the buffed, glossy rawness of the first three tracks, split the album into two distinctive, if not brow-furrowing halves.
“Drinking Problem” tries to bridge the gap between the two halves of the album as the song’s added synthesizer and texturing samples give the track a Kraut-rock vibe. Then, unexpectedly, the levee holding the synthesizer back to a trickle in the “Drinking Problem” gives way, and Tarot begins gushing dance-pop in “Voyager Reprise (Summer of Love Remix)” with a steady drumbeat behind sparkling synthesizer carrying the song.
While following the psychological trajectory of a group like Surfer Blood, if we were only to judge them based on its musical output, bouncing from frat house barnburners to dance club ambiance doesn’t seem like a terribly far leap. In fact, it probably narrates the night for the majority of early-20-somethings. But audibly, it feels unnatural, contrived, if only because of the juxtaposition between the first three tracks.
But then again, it doesn’t sound bad. This is an EP, so rules about proper mixing and continuity really don’t apply here anyhow.
The last track on the album, “Voyager (Spectacular Remix),” has Surfer Blood heading back in its (still-being-defined) signature direction. This remix adds distortion, a guttural bassline and piercing feedback to the original “Voyager” and takes away the sunny samples, giving the track an entirely new dynamic.
If this EP is just a teaser of what’s to come, then there’s reason to be excited, as long as Surfer Blood sticks to indie-rock. If it’s prophetic of a genre-jump, be wary.
Surfer Blood – Tarot Classics tracklist:
- “I’m Not Ready”
- “Miranda”
- “Voyager Reprise”
- “Drinking Problem”
- “Voyager Reprise (Summer of Love Remix)”
- “Drinking Problem (Speculator Remix)”
