
Beach Fossils SOMERSAULT
On their 2013 album, Beach Fossils' main man Dustin Payseur successfully expanded his reverb-fed bedroom pop sound by including the contributions of his bandmate, guitarist Tommy Davidson, in the studio. After a long break, Beach Fossils' 2017 album, Somersault, includes not only the studio presence of Davidson again, but bassist Jack Smith too. The pair also took on a more collaborative role in the songwriting process. And if that weren't enough change, the trio brought in string sections, keyboards, flutes, Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, and rapper Cities Aviv (briefly) to help give their once claustrophobic pop sound a widescreen makeover. At their core, the songs still have all the melancholy gloom that Payseur brought to his earliest work; they also have the subtle hooks and still exude a calm warmth that makes Beach Fossils records very easy to cozy up with. This time, though, Beach Fossils take much more care with the arrangements, whether adding strings or harpsichord, adding dynam