Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast is so good that the first time I heard it back in November, I thought I’d ration my listens. I heard the sunny hooks and sweet riffs and the crisp, lush, beachy textures of its guitar-lover’s paradise, and I knew that this album needed to be a cornerstone of my Summer ‘10 soundtrack. Therefore, I didn’t want to burn myself out on it sooner than August. Then, because Astro Coast is so good, I had trouble rationing. Now it’s mid-February and I’m already well past my 10th listen. No matter, though: Astro Coast is so good that it only gets better, and I’m nowhere near sick of it yet.
Nostalgia might have something to do with this. Surfer Blood obviously loves early Weezer even more than I did when I was 13. (Note: at 13, when I made a CO2-powered model race car in shop class, I painted this car Blue Album-blue and emblazoned its nose with a mighty winged W.) But Astro Coast is so much more than just a must-have album for people who miss Weezer’s glory days. Otherwise, I wouldn’t keep running back to it. It’s ultimately a stellar debut by a band who should enjoy a bright future playing lovably dorky, arena-guitar power-pop.
Seriously, there isn’t a song on Astro Coast I don’t dig. Each one chills me out and kicks my ass simultaneously. Some hit me with their greatness right away. Opening track “Floating Vibes” sets the tone nicely, as its hard rock intro riff segues seamlessly into a breezy tune that belies its slightly snarky sentiments. Tunes such as “Take It Easy” and “Twin Peaks” add some tropical rhythms which still feel natural within their power-pop surroundings; it never sounds as if the band just listened to Sandinista! the night before and thought, “Dudes, we should totally tack on some Afro-Caribbean flavor in this joint.”
Other songs sounded decent at first, then revealed their greatness gradually, as I discovered more of their secrets (”Harmonix,” “Fast Jabroni,” “Catholic Pagans”). Two songs are over six minutes long and I didn’t even realize it until after several listens (”Slow Jabroni,” “Anchorage”). One is a short instrumental that sounds like The Stone Roses covering Dick Dale (”Neighbour Riffs”).
Then there’s “Swim,” which is one of the raddest songs I’ve heard in the past few years and without a doubt the Champion of Astro Coast. The awesomeness of “Swim” not only makes me wish summer would get here already, but it makes me wish I were 17 again. It also makes me want to sign up for some kind of swimming race, solely so I can blast “Swim” from a boombox on the side of the pool while I train.
Now, most other albums might have to place as song as big and climactic as “Swim” near the bottom of their tracklists. Astro Coast doesn’t have to worry about that. It can place “Swim” all the way up at track 2 and then live up to that for 35 more minutes. You know, like if you heard The Blue Album for the first time and at the end of “My Name Is Jonas” you thought to yourself My goodness, how are they gonna follow that one? And then you found out…it’s kind of like that.