Endless Rooms (Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever) – music review

Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is a band that has the appearance of following an older music model. I believe with their third long player, Endless Rooms, that model continues to pay large dividends. Artist development is pretty much a thing of the past these days but even with the success of their 2018 debut, Hope Downs, RBCF have continued with Sub Pop Records and grown with each release. They also have now released each album almost exactly two years apart. Throw in a pandemic and this more classic approach to releasing music is much harder to find these days but through it all RBCF has stayed in our mind and playlists.

The band still consists of Fran Keaney, Joe White, Marcel Tussie and brothers Tom Russo and Joe Russo which continues an irreplaceable consistency. This connection and collaborative spirit shines on Endless Rooms. The band still can lock down a jangly guitar line on a foot tapping track like “The Way It Shatters” but on Endless Rooms everything is much more subtle and simmers a bit before any escalation. You also get a more prevalent keyboard that roams free throughout the album. There are several tracks here that maturely move forward at a slower pace but all get pulled together with the bands layered harmonies. “Caught Low,” “Bounce Off The Bottom” and “Open Up Your Window” are all good representations of this.

Endless Rooms also blends tempos within tracks masterfully as the guitar still reigns supreme. “Deep Dive” has several guitar solo moments that has the track wandering off in one direction before the band brings it back around with a big call out bridge. On “My Echo,” you get the same free range roaming as the track rolls over and over tempo hills as it embeds the chorus in your head. These type of songs don’t necessarily stand out immediately but they all have big staying power and a high reply value.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever sounds more diverse with their experimentation on Endless Rooms without impacting their previous sound. The group has wonderfully hit a creative groove that now seems to have no boundaries. It is nice to see an actual indie rock band follow a more normal album trajectory and career maturation as we can only hope it continues upward for RBCF!

Thomas Wilde
For more of Thomas Wilde’s music reviews, check out The Fire Note

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