NEW SOUND MAGAZINE NEWSOUND_VOL_VII_2013 | Page 8

beach fossils ALBUM REVIEW By Katarina Barone n the ever-expanding indie rock universe, Dustin Payseur – the pallid, rumple-haired creative force behind Brooklyn’s Beach Fossils – has blown up, grown up, ‘Crashed Out’, and cashed in. He’s drafted bandmates, licked-up bedsit pop, and scorch-earthed countless stages. Yet throughout four years of artistic delights and defeats, Payseur’s allegiance to an aesthetic of clean lines and simple shapes has never wavered. The Beach Fossils template remains fixed: shimmering, uncomplicated guitar melodies that one could play in their sleep; detached, reedy vocals; straightforward lyrics that sound lifted from an adolescent’s dog-eared journal. Or, distilled into a few words: “Keep it simple, hipster.” I 6 NEWSOUNDMAGAZINE.COM 7