Bunny. Beach Fossils

Things were quiet around Beach Fossils for years. I saw the band play at a festival in Paradiso, Amsterdam. The band was obviously tired and in fact happy it was the last gig of the tour. By the time I wanted to buy a record, the band had packed in already, all ready to head back to NYC; to go into hibernation for five years.

The silence has been breached. Beach Fossils is back with an album that skates a very thin line. The line between lying with closed eyes out of sheer reverence or being bored to death. There doesn't seem to be anything in between. I am writing, so you have an inkling of the category you can find me in. Yet, I can imagine falling into the latter on a bad day for the dreamy music Beach Fossils presents on Bunny.

"Pull me back into myself", sings Dustin Payseur in 'Run To The Moon' It could be the motto for Bunny. As a starter of this discussion only though. Listen closely and you will find the soup is far more diverse than just served hot. Bunny is an album deserving surrender, fully. Allow yourself that, and the album will open itself to you. Behind that dreamy front, created by the singing of Payseur and the atmosphere woven around his voice, there is a lot of beauty presented that deserves being discovered.

Bunny excels in melodic guitar overdubs that make the music shine bright. The band was not content with just the song. It may have been in search of extra melodies for several years. If so, Beach Fossils has totally succeeded. Little riffs and melodies come in all of the time, enriching the album for the whole of the way.

The music will remind you of The Byrds and Roger McGuinn solo, some R.E.M., dreampop with guitars and minor psychedelics, as in '(Just Like The) Setting Sun' where a synth emulates a Mellotron (perhaps the real thing) and creates a 1960s vibe underneath the dreampop.

Bunny is filled with these excellent details. With ease I can slip into the reverence announced in the above. Bunny is a dream of an album.

Six years between albums is long, even by today's standards and can be a career killer. Everybody may have forgotten about you. With an album like Bunny Beach Fossils fans should be quite happy and even new ones ought to be won over. Beach Fossils is back and the world better pay heed.

There's one thing I better not comment on. (See the top left corner of this post.)

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Bunny here:

https://beachfo.bandcamp.com/album/bunny