For years, it started to feel like Beach Fossils were going out on top. It’s been six years since the release of their last proper album, Somersault – an album I called “near-perfect” and “a breath of fresh air” on this very site. Six years isn’t quite Modest Mouse time, but it’s enough to make you wonder if a band may have simply run out of steam and rode off into the sunset. And if they did, who could blame them? Beach Fossils has amassed a stronger body of work in seven years than many other bands do in a lifetime.
We got to have some fun on the interim – piano versions of their own songs and a Yung Lean cover leaned into the band’s penchant for sparse beauty, something they’ve played with to this day. But it was the release of lead single “Don’t Fade Away” and the announcement of their fourth studio album, Bunny, that really caught fans’ ears. Beach Fossils were back, and with an instant classic that harkened back to 90s jangle-pop (Gin Blossoms, anyone?) under their wing, it felt like they never left. And that’s a feeling that defines Bunny, an album that ultimately feels like an amalgamation of the band’s previous work. Put simply, it’s a greatest-hits record comprised of entirely new material.
The album’s first three-song run makes that abundantly clear. Opening track “Sleeping on My Own” erupts with one of the biggest, most sweeping choruses of the band’s career. It’s a melody that injects otherwise down-to-earth lyrics with new life, something the band excels at. Just a passing listen of campfire tune “Run to the Moon” makes this abundantly clear:
“Staying up all night/We’re all taking drugs/Acting stupid, having fun ‘till the sun is coming up/Might be too depressed/Lost in A.D.D./You’re too optimistic, but that’s alright with me.”
They’re straightforward, almost to a fault, but fit with the right instrumentation, the song transforms into vivid memory for anyone who listens.
In fact, Bunny’s primary strength and weakness is familiarity. For every melodic knockout like “Dare Me” or “Tough Love,” there’s a song like “(Just Like The) Setting Sun,” or “Anywhere is Anywhere” – songs so reminiscent of the Beach Fossils formula that one could be forgiven for forgetting which album they actually belonged to. But for most listeners, this is a feature, not a bug; fans of Beach Fossils get exactly what they want, and newcomers get an introduction to the band creating some of their best work in real-time.
And so once again, fans of the band find ourselves in an interesting spot. We hope it doesn’t take another six-plus years to hear more from one of the most consistent dream-pop artists still around, but if, God forbid, they call it quits tomorrow? Well, it feels good to know that Beach Fossils would, once again, be going out on top.