Beach Fossils

Brooklyn, NY's Beach Fossils released one of the more subdued, beach-friendly albums of 2010. And like almost all of their peers, on their follow-up, they've given their dirty production a good cleaning while also making some adjustments to their pensive garage sound. With bassist John Peña joining Dustain Payseur for songwriting duties, What A Pleasure sees the band even more wistful with their music. The guitar lines now shimmer and ring, leaving behind the '60s influence of their eponymous debut to evoke the same fixation with '80s dream pop as labelmate Jack Tatum and his band Wild Nothing. However, it gets to a point where these two bands sound so close that it becomes a case of "who's who?" on much of this EP. "Fall Right In" and the title track could both pass for a new Wild Nothing seven-inch, while matters become even more confusing when Tatum shows up to duet with Payseur on "Out in the Way." Beach Fossils are fully capable of making some bewildering music, What A Pleasure being the proof of that. But they can't possibly reach their full potential until they settle into a sound completely their own.