Crush – Crush EP

Sure it might not light the world on fire anymore; but for my money, the nostalgia-drenched, time-faded strands of sandy guitar-pop from the unaffected, unpretentious cliques like Real Estate or Best Coast is the stuff that just feels good. And good pop is generally about making you feel good. It’s hard to resist the tumbling buoyancy of a song like ‘I Need You’ – it doesn’t demand much, but curving along the melody’s peaceful, oceanic ridges is taboo for only the most aloof of listeners.

The man responsible for ‘I Need You’ and the rest of the Crush project is Tommy Gardner, someone best known for his work in the ascending Beach Fossils. According to my research he’s got exactly seven tracks to his name, which conforms to an EP of meshed happenstance. The songs drift into one another like a collection that sounds cobbled together for the sake of a release – not that that’s a bad thing, in fact I rather appreciate the honesty. The straightforwardness is appreciated, sure it could be more ambitious but Gardner’s craft isn’t really something that should be swinging for the fences. Instead it did a really good job removing 21 minutes from a 10 hour flight – which is exactly what I was asking of it.

Crush was conceived in direct emotion, the tracks have simple titles and simpler explanations; ‘Too Tired To Fight’ is about when the on-and-off routine starts to feel really silly and ‘I Look Good’ tributes the fleeting boost of confidence rewarded when you like what you see in the mirror. Of course then there’s the fuzzy mess ‘For You’ and the unattached smudginess of ‘Everything to Lose’ – neither of which inspire much and end the EP on a nasty downwards slump. These are not the greatest artifacts of the beach-pop manifesto, in fact I probably wouldn’t even give them third place, but I would say they’re seductively hard to hate. I can’t confirm the relevance of Crush, or vouch for a productive future, but I can say that this little 7-inch will make you happy – and for 5 dollars, that’s a bargain. Stream it in full below.