The quartet's debut LP, Astrocoast, not only clocked in at #124 on the Billboard 200 (and of course at #14 in our rundown of the 20 greatest records of 2010) but was also chock-a-block with ingenius melodies and intricate (needless to say surfy) riffs. Yet would they be all washed up for the follow-up, caught in a stodgy comedown in the wake of the relentlessly ecstatic thrill of the full-length? Their Tarot Classics EP, the first splurge of new material since then and the final one on Kanine Records, suggests that the West Palm Beach troupe are continuing to ride atop the crest of a beautifully curled wave of impeccably crafted, overtly accessible power pop. Cascading guitars wriggle together in perfect harmony over constant bass rumble and a chorus that crashes vigorously on opener I'm Not Ready, while Miranda adds crunch to blue crush, its introductory hunks of guitar sounding grittier than sand grizzled between top and bottom canines.
Drinking Problem is perhaps their most avant-garde and experimental work thus far, evocative of Cold Cave overdosing on beta blockers as processed sounds of the sea float fluidly above John Paul Pitts' cyclical vocal loops. However it's Voyager Reprise that supplies the highlight to Tarot Classics, comprising Tom Fekete's finest slab of riffage to date and a breakdown filled with synths that squirm like the countless legs of an indiscernible insect caught in gossamer web, all entangled with lyrics of self-loathing.
Here's a bonus, gratuitously clacky remix of Miranda courtesy of New York shoegazers School of Seven Bells.
miranda [school of seven bells remix] // surfer blood by sexmusic
Tarot Classics is out now via Kanine Records, and they play ATP's Nightmare Before Christmas come December.
