(Photo Credit - Peter Ryle)
Advance Review - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Sideways to New Italy (June 5, 2020) on SubPop
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s newest album, Sideways To New Italy, encompasses an overarching theme of getting back to their roots, and telling the world about it.
The Australia-based 5 piece takes their surf rock sound to another level in this project by giving it intrinsic meanings tributing to the places they call home. The inspiration comes from their reflections and understanding of the world on their last tour, looking through a window at other people’s lives and homes and reminiscing on their own.
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Joe White’s first concepts for the album were eventually thrown out to introduce a more authentic but lighthearted theme for the record, with love songs like “She’s There” and “The Only One”. Throughout the record you can find secret meanings and nods to the band’s family and friends, all contributing towards the careful composition of a “utopia in their own backyard”.
Both uplifting and sentimental, the tracks on this album represent making sense of the multitudinous puzzle pieces of one’s life. Surprisingly, the feelings emanated from each song focuses more on the recognition and memory of love and home, rather than escaping feelings of dislocation. It’s both refreshing and thought-provoking, in a carefree fashion.
The album is a narrative of change and constants, of what really makes a place a home, and that’s what makes it special. The record is a perfect addition to your summer playlists, for a season that will surely be full of sunlight and inquiry for all of us. Give this one a listen on June 5th; you won’t regret it.
Rating: 4.5/5
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