Spectreview: Beach Vacation – I Fell Apart

Released: November 13, 2020

Indie Rock
(Dream Pop)

-RED-

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What happens when a genre often associated with nostalgia becomes its own form of nostalgia? That’s what I get listening to Beach Vacation’s new record, a clever meshing of surf pop, shoegaze textures, Swedish pop stylings and the incorrigible hypnagogic indie rock of early-2010’s bands. No one expects this kind of music to take off anymore, and truth be told I’m still getting cavities filled in from the last time this sound started circulating in the American Eagles of the nation. You can see why all the trend makers of yesteryear latched onto this sound though; done well, it scratches a specific dopamine itch that not much else can reach.

Beach Vacation does this music well. There’s solid songwriting hidden behind the soft-focus guitar and reverberating haze. Beach Fossils’s mark becomes evident from solipsistic opener “Break the Ice,” yet there’s no cog out of place, whether it’s the careful production or Tabor Rupp’s vocals, which land and evaporate like clouds of smoke. Same goes for the uptempo “Our Night is Falling” and the foggy “I Fell Apart,” both intensely-pleasant listens that benefit from the band’s restrained approach. What they have in consistency they trade off in variety, as the rest of the record matches both the mood and energy of those three tracks with high points where they switch it up slightly, in “Mustang’s” raised energy and “Don’t Stay Away’s” gentle closing moments. I Fell Apart may be scientifically designed to slot into indie playlists, but that shouldn’t take away from the deft songcraft making up these songs.

Recommended for imagining what last summer could have been.