(2021) Beachy Head - Beachy Head


Review:
For many artists, the periods of downtime between album cycles provide a much-needed respite. They can also be a chance for artists to explore creative outlets outside of songwriting. But when famed shoegazers Slowdive took a break in 2019, guitarist Christian Savill decided to keep working. His new dream-pop outfit Beachy Head puts an emphasis on introspection over atmosphere. Recorded with Savil’s long-time collaborator, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Graveface of The Casket Girls, the album is studded with lush performances from the likes of Steve Clarke, Flaming Lips drummer Matt Duckworth, and Slowdive/Mojave 3 member Rachel Goswell. The end result is a record that combines fuzzed-out rock (the Teenage Fanclub-esque “Looking for Exits”), melodic synth-pop coated in keyboards and digital beats (“Hiddensee”) and dewy shoegaze (“Michael”). Yet the songs on Beachy Head also have a wistful quality. Goswell’s vocals add a haunted, lonely vibe to the album—especially on the desolate “All Gone”—while the lyrics possess a palpable sense of disconnection and uncertainty. Opening track “Warning Bell” starts with the searing line, “Now I’ve touched you for the last time/ Creature of unhappiness.” The slowcore standout “October,” a song specifically set “in the fading light” of an autumn night, captures the ephemeral nature of one specific moment in a romance. Amid a backdrop of brittle guitars and whispery percussion, Savill sounds vulnerable but hopeful as he tenderly asks, “I see your eyes on me so bright/ How do I know your words won’t fade in the night?” Intimate and piercing, Beachy Head is one of the most compelling debuts of 2021. — daily.bandcamp.com





Track Listing:
1.Warning Bell 03:48
2.Michael 04:15
3.Distraction 03:14
4.All Gone 03:17
5.Looking for Exits 02:53
6.October 03:45
7.Hiddensee 02:53
8.Destroy Us 04:17


Media Report:
Genre: indie-pop, shoegaze
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits