SOTD #52 // Beach Fossils: 'Youth'

I’m genuinely finding it tough to put into words how good Dustin Payseur’s solo outing as Beach Fossils is. Having felt strangely compelled to listen to “Youth” practically non-stop for the past hour, I’m yet to find the necessary adjectives to describe its casual magnetism. “Youth” comes across completely sublime and relaxed within its own sound, but far from slipping into the crowded musical gutter of the languid and boring, its unconcerned nature grips with an ambling radiance that will only sound better come mid-summer.

It’s tempting to throw the lazy description of “lo-fi” at Beach Fossils. Tempting, but both imprecise and completely misleading, come to think of it. The combined facts that a) far too much music is twisted into a brainless mess by excessively liberal use of computers and that b) the term “lo-fi” can nowadays lazily be used to describe a track that does not conform to this dreadful reality by using actual instruments to record music do not warrant its use. But in its own very particular and slightly bleary fashion, “Youth” manages to sound exactly like what we wish The Drums might sound like if they spent more time wrapped in introspection and less time worrying about everyone’s opinion of them. And if you can’t make out any of his lyrics, well, you won’t be able to care less; “Youth’s” steamy aesthetic is mere inches from pop perfection and, if this article proves anything, words just don’t compare.

Beach Fossils: “Youth”