Some songs have the summer in them. They pulse joy right through the speakers and down into your fundamentals, adding an extra swagger in the step, making the day that little bit brighter….
Songs like (Nothing But) Flowers by the Talking Heads, Corinna by Taj Mahal or Legs of Bees by Fruit Bats. With Hope Downs (2018), Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever sustain that sweet feeling for an entire album, with more licks and hooks than a prize-winning fisherman in an ice cream eating competition.
Formed in Melbourne in 2013, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever had released two fantastic EPs (Talk Tight (2014), The French Press (2017)) by the time their debut album Hope Downs came along. It is intricate, fist-pumping, and sun-drenched, and feels like it could have been released at the crest of 80s New Wave snuggled next to The Orange Juice, The Bible, or fellow Antipodeans Men At Work…without the jagged 80s paranoia.
