Coastal - Beneath the Snow and Streetlights

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 4 / 5 / 2015

---

Review

I’ve always been on the lookout for bands who seem to exist in their own space, unbothered by what’s going on around them in the music scene. Back in 2001, Coastal were one such band. As the world went crazy for the Strokes and the Hives, Coastal played slow, soft, dreamy music. Some called them ‘shoegaze’ or ‘slowcore’, but Coastal’s music never seemed right for either tag. It was too dreamily pretty to be ‘shoegaze’, too tuneful to be ‘slowcore’. ‘Beneath the Snow and Streetlights’ does not, alas, represent a full return to action from Coastal, last seen in this parish more than a decade ago. Instead, it wraps up a number of tracks from EPs and compilations, many dating from before the 2004 release of Coastal’s second full album, ‘Halfway To You’. (Although their first live performance in a decade in January 2015 suggests more may follow). There are, though, five genuinely new (or at the very least ‘unreleased’) songs – and all of which suggest no let-up in quality despite the decade of inactivity. They still sound as gloriously out of place now as they did a decade ago – shimmering guitar lines, delicate drums and drawn out vocal harmonies, betraying unexpectedly memorable song-writing. Many of the older songs on this compilation are explicitly themed around winter – which, with Spring just beginning as we typed this review, may suggest this is an album to file away for a few months. But fear not, Coastal snag upon the warmth and mystery of colder times, without ever making their music too chilly. These are headphone moments for any month of the year.

Track Listing:-

1 We Drink to Remember
2 Amber
3 San Malo (Guitar Version)
4 Infrared (Acoustic)
5 Avalon
6 Ashes
7 An August Night
8 Snowfall
9 Snow in Bethlehem
10 Cavalry
11 Silent Night
12 Winter
13 Shivering
14 We Drink to Remember (Jasinski Remix)
15 San Malo (Piano Version)

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coastal
http://www.coastalrock.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.words-on-music.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wordsonmusic
https://twitter.com/WordsOnMusic
https://www.youtube.com/user/shouldfis