Review: Beach Baby’s EP ‘Limousine’
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- Written by Rita Braby
UK indie rock four-piece Beach Baby are receiving quite a bit of attention from their debut offering, with single Limousine racking up the views on YouTube and spinning regularly on triple J here in Aus.
The track is the namesake for their debut EP, a collection of just four songs, most of which have already been released as singles. The London-based group bring the dreamy, jangly vibes with their echoing guitar-pop and cool-as-a-cucumber vocals. Brought together via Athens and Dorset and Sheffield in the UK, Beach Baby have created a brief but very promising EP.
The title track Limousine is their most frenetic song, jam packed with grungy bass, driving drum beat, and an intoxicating, jangly guitar riff that has the metallic ring of a steel drum. The vocals from co-vocalists Ollie and Lawrence give the track a deeper, commanding tone.
The recent video for Limousine is a whimsical take on a young love triangle, with a very Wes Anderson feel. The band said: “we wanted the video to mirror the warped and surreal lyrical subject matter, so we arrived at the idea of two young boys preparing for a Mexican stand-off, with a love interest standing by. To further unsettle the mood, it was really important that the children dressed and behaved like adults.”
No Mind No Money is a slower, more melancholy track, with the loose swing of slacker-rock and angelic harmonies of 60s pop; it has a dreamy yet disillusioned vibe to it. You can’t help but picture a mod girl with saucer-like eyes blinking at you throughout the song. It seems like no coincidence that the lads met at Goldsmiths University in South London, notorious for producing young, English artistic types (Blur also formed there).
Ladybird is a meandering track that sounds a bit like Boy & Bear at times, with dreamy, layered vocals and a great, soaring crescendo. The vocals and the twang of the guitar have a shoe-gaze vibe, but as the up-beat chorus cuts in, the mood shifts entirely.
The EP finishes with U R, a smooth track with a delicate but complex percussion and reverberating guitar riffs. The energy in the song builds as the chorus is repeated over and over again, creating a heady and intoxicating atmosphere, and then it signs off with the fuzz of guitar feedback. Just like the EP, it seems to end just as you start wanting more. Four tracks wasn’t enough, but it’s a delicious and dreamy taste of what’s to come from Beach Baby.
Beach Baby's debut EP 'Limousine' is out now via Caroline Australia
