CLASH THE TRUTH BY BEACH FOSSILS

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Clash The Truth By Beach Fossils

While Beach Fossils' eponymous 2010 debut taught us what an Indie version of Surf Rock would sound like if it was played through a tin can—the results were very successful, by the way—2013's Clash The Truth substitutes the surf rock for late 80's post punk textures similar to those by pre-Loveless My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, This Mortal Coil and Jesus & Mary Chain.  The result is a stunning, melancholy, introspective record which could easily serve as the soundtrack for teenage stoners, a kid spending yet another day alone in his attic and girls folding jeans at Urban Outfitters.  That's a wide spectrum, but Clash The Truth has such an addicting sound, the perfect combination of mopey and exuberant, that it will likely move a lot of people—though probably not to the cash registers.

Clocking in at, in my opinion, the perfect album length (just over 35 minutes,) there are not any great songs on Clash The Truth.  That's not a digression, actually—there were not any great songs on their debut, either.  But, Beach Fossils succeed on a variety of good songs like "Careless," "Shallow" and "In Vertigo;" okay songs with lots of muscle and texture like "Generational Synthetic" and the title track; beautiful, acoustic songs like the charming, purposefully out-of-tune "Sleep Apnea" and the few somewhat haunting instrumental passages like "Modern Holiday," "Brighter" and "Ascension."

Do all these sonic changes and 14 new songs make Clash The Truth an improvement on Beach Fossils' debut? No, actually.  Rather, the album shows a new, different side to a band that sounded perfectly fine and comfortable doing what they were doing.  A better question is, do I prefer Clash The Truth to 2010's Beach Fossils.

Yes. 

Clash The Truth By Beach Fossils

And, why not?

Beach Fossils