If Beach Fossils' eponymous debut was the quintessential Brooklyn rooftop party soundtrack for last year, What a Pleasure is what happens when the party gets rained out. The band may not venture into genuinely depressing territory, but there's a wistful feeling that courses through it. On "Out in the Way", head Fossil Dustin Payseur and Wild Nothing's Jack Tatum sing in unison, "Everything feels different now here without you." The EP's final track is titled "Adversity". Clearly, this is a different look from the band who made being carefree sound so alluring on "Lazy Day".
Even though the song is about the moments that make you overwhelmed with happiness, "Fall Right In" sounds anxious and contemplative, like it's a referencing a love long since passed. The pensive guitar lines have something to do with the feeling, but it's mostly because Payseur's detached vocals are too plaintive to display the exuberance of romance. There's a similar disposition on "Face It", where he pledges to "give up the city life" for his paramour. These tunes create an interesting dichotomy-- joyous lyrics delivered solemnly.
The other tunes on What a Pleasure sound like scaled-back variations of themes explored to their fullest potential on the band's debut, which is odd considering how much more collaborative this record is. One of the biggest drawing points on Beach Fossils-- which Payseur wrote and recorded by himself-- was the way every instrument was written directly in relation to everything going on around it. It was carefully arranged in the way a jazz or classical piece might be. Here, Payseur wrote the songs along with bassist John Peña, and it shows. On certain songs, the bassline provides much of the instrumental melody during the verses, which spreads things out a little, but oses some of Payseur's compositional flair in the process. The aforementioned "Out in the Way" sounds like the exact midpoint between Beach Fossils [#script:http://pitchfork.com/media/backend/js/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js]|||||| and Wild Nothing, which is very pretty but also a little superfluous.
This is rectified on "Calyer", where a sun shower of guitar work provides what is probably the EP's best moment. It's a tune that won't catch you as remarkable on the first few listens, until you start to notice all of the counter-melody blooming between the guitars. But this moment is fleeting, and a few short minutes later, the ending of "Adversity" is meant to sync right back into opener "Moments". It's one of the times where it seems like the songs on What a Pleasure bleed into each other, with the really bright ideas coming in small batches. It'll be interesting to see where Beach Fossils go from here, because What a Pleasure is the type of release that shows they're talented, but still have a little work to do fully capitalize on it.
