Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – French Press EP – Review by Killian Laher

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are an Australian band with a rather unwieldy name and their new EP will help lift the lingering winter gloom. Opening with the ringing guitars of the title track, it’s five and a half minutes of sheer joy. The guitars jangle wonderfully on a track built for evoking driving down sunny highways. The final two minutes consists of an outtro featuring the guitars cutting loose in a manner that calls to mind virtuosos like Tom Verlaine. After opening with such a high it’s hard for them to top it. Julie’s Place and Colours Run take something of the frantic, jerky essence of early Strokes, but very much relocated to sunnier climes.

Elsewhere, the muscular guitars of Sick Bug are let down slightly by a somewhat flat lead vocal. Better is the relaxed strum Dig Up which is like a cross between Lloyd Cole and Paul Weller’s more upbeat moments. Fountain of Good Fortune rounds off the EP reminiscent of the Go-Betweens with a fine singalong refrain that’s as fine an example of poppy indie as you’ll hear this side of the summer, and another excellent guitar-laden outtro.

Definitely a band to watch, the EP is available from bandcamp. 

1. French Press
2. Julie’s Place
3. Sick Bug
4. Colours Run
5. Dig Up
6. Fountain of Good Fortune