Beach Sloth

Keepers – New Waves 7.5

                Right in the nick of time: Keepers’ appearance could not be better. At this time I rue all the summer music festivals, of past and present around this time. This is the hottest summer on record. Why not something that conjures up images of time spent on the beach? Indeed ‘New Waves’ is aptly titled. Everything on here either directly or indirectly references some level of carefree summer rock, whether it is the smooth introduction to ‘Petrichor’ or the Strokes-like ‘Ten Ways to Sunday’. 

                Keepers have a number of influences. Some of these are fairly straightforward. The Sea and Cake appear to be an influence on the mellower tracks. In fact, these mellower tracks tend break up the generally fast tempo that rules over most of the album. ‘Petrichor’ could be off of any of The Sea and Cake’s late 90s albums. Faster tracks burn through so much, it is a bit amazing how they manage to be so happy at such a breakneck speed. ‘Your Whole World is Just a Second’ barely takes a moment to catch its breath before it quickly scurries to the finish line. 

                Yes this is party rock. If there ever was an album dedicated to pure jubilation, this may be it. Everything screams pure happiness. At no point do Keepers let up. They need to jam as much into their tracks as possible. Many of the fast, longer songs create an almost hypnotic quality with their sheer repetition. Moods on here are similar to other summery bands (Spoon for example) with slightly longer track lengths. Indeed, Keepers keep the tradition of light, airy summer music strong.