Album Review: Endless Rooms by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

"Pearl Like You," the short opening track on Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's third album Endless Rooms, opens a door and hints at a slower, dreamier sound than the broiling, agile, guitar-driven pop found on the Australian band's 2020-released sophomore album, Sideways to New Italy. But the next four tracks quickly dispel that notion and reveal the same raw energy that, in some ways, is more dense, a little more polished and certainly more ambitious. On first listen, tracks such as singles "Tidal River" and "My Echo," with their hard attack of cavernous and cascading guitars--similar to those made famous by U2's The Edge--are more technical but less hook-driven than songs on previous efforts.

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Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever sparked quite a buzz in underground circles with a sound that came off as a curious mélange of early R.E.M. jangle, '90s slacker-rock insouciance and 2000s indie effervescence. When they delivered on the promise of their early EPs with two albums of sparkling guitar pop, the Melbourne-based outfit quickly found themselves at the top of the indie rock hype heap. Third album Endless Rooms is less about the thrill of jangly guitars and driving rhythms, despite pre-release singles being just as bouncy as their previous outings.

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Endless Rooms, diminishing returns? I had a hunch that Endless Rooms would see Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (henceforth to be referred to as "RBCF") striking out dramatically on a new path. Maybe it was the gorgeous nocturnal vibe of the album's artwork, which contrasts with the sunny beach vibes which characterized the group's first two full-lengths. Or maybe it was an acknowledgement that, while RBCF's second record, Sideways To New Italy, was a great release, it also was one of those albums whose title proves oddly prophetic: indeed, it truly was a move not forward, but sideways, very similiar in vibe and direction to the band's wildly impressive debut Hope Downs but not quite living up to the quality.

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