Dreams Of The Coast
Self-Released, 2021
9/10
The South Carolina artist Grant Nesmith refers to his music as ‘cosmic American surf music’, and these 11 diverse tunes certainly reinforce that description plus add much more, as guests include Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell), Ed Dennis and Gene Elders (George Strait, Lyle Lovett), among others.
“Never Die” starts the listen with some summery strumming as psychedelic ideas enter a dreamy and very tuneful rock’n’roll opener, and “Kaleidoscope follows with warm piano guiding the retro-pop song craft.
Near the middle, “Morning” brings a crunchy, alt-rock influenced delivery of melody and power, while “Souvenir” offers some variation of baroque-pop that’s jangly, groovy and instantly memorable. “Mountaintop” a particularly great tune, then benefits from swift drumming and fuzzier moments of unique indie-rock that’s unclassifiable and very enjoyable.
“Haunt” and “Such A Crime” finish the listen, where the former moves cautiously with some country influences amid much beauty and pedal steel from Dennis, and the latter exits the listen on an initially calm note, where some twang adds much to the cosmic, harmonic, prog-rock nods.
An extremely versatile and well done effort, Nesmith manages to bring to mind your favorite alt-country outfit, Dinosaur Jr. and The Beach Boys all at once, in an adventurous and precise listen that just might be the first great record of 2021
Travels well with: Sadler Vaden- Anybody Out There?; Aaron Lee Tasjan- Karma For Cheap