Album Review: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever takes a dark turn with Endless Rooms

Australian band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever released their third studio album on May 6 2022 with labels Ivy League and Sub Pop. Their latest release ‘Endless Rooms’, is their biggest one to date, packed with 12 songs and an evolution of their sound into more ethereal and political territories.

An indie rock band hailing from Melbourne, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever was formed in 2013 by singer-guitarists Fran Keaney, Tom Russo and Joe White, along with bass guitarist (and sibling) Joe Russo and drummer Marcel Tussie. RBCF began gaining traction with their EPs Talk Tight and The French Press, which were released in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Their previous two albums – Hope Downs and Sideways to New Ital’ – were released two years apart, first in 2018, then in 2020. With their new album, Endless Rooms, following this trend, you can’t say the band isn’t consistent.

Talk Tight and The French Pres’ displayed a sound that wore its influences on its sleeve. Clearly lifting inspiration from The Go-Betweens, the band feels like it was plucked straight out of the 1980s or 90s, reflecting a bygone era of the Australian music scene. Critics have suggested that the band is reminiscent of the dolewave genre, a music scene born out of the very city that RBCF emerged from. For reference, artists such as Twerp, Dick Diver and Courtney Barnett seem to be tapping into that same DIY, distinctly 80s, distinctly Australiasian sound. There’s also a bit of a surfy edge to RBCF’s work. In any case, it’s very white.

Music critic Robert Christgau stated that the band’s lyrics “suit the bright white male culture the sound implies.” Intending that as a compliment, I think it instead shows the lack of diversity  in our culture and music scene that this band somewhat represents. With most of our most popular indie rock bands consisting of white men, such as Lime Cordiale, Skegss, Le Shiv, and the dolewave bands mentioned before, perhaps it is a problem.

In any case, RBCF’s Endless Rooms sees the band continue with their surf rock, Australian DIY aesthetic, with songs like ‘Tidal River’ and ‘The Way It Shatters’ evoking a typical indie rock sound, while ‘Caught Low’, the intro ‘Pearl Like You’and the title track see them slow things down and get a bit more lowkey and ethereal.

Packed to the brim with 12 songs, the album features some of their most impressive guitar work yet,  as well as some poignant political commentary regarding the state of the world. Conjuring imagery of “ceilings on fire” and “petrochemical factor[ies]”, RBCF’s lyrics capture the contextual milieu of a country wrought by environmental collapse, climate change and a now former leader going on vacations to Hawaii.

These political jabs never quite hit hard enough, however, due to the band’s casual, laid back presentation. They’re a hangout band, first and foremost; too every-man to entertain any notions of self importance. As stated before, RBCF has cultivated a very white, beachy, upper middle class audience. Their pro-immigration sentiments or attempts to haunt us with imagery of homes burning down doesn’t quite match with the psychedelic low-fi instrumentals.

The band’s shift to a more darker atmosphere, however, is signaled in their album cover, which depicts a gothic Australian bush landscape shrouded in darkness and nearly engulfing a lone home. Haunting, yet warm in its orangey glow; their sound signals a reprieve from the darkness of our world in its casual vibes, but the lyrics remind us of the horrors that lurk on our doorstep. It’s conflicting yet complimentary.

Endless Rooms is a welcome departure from RBCF’s regular work, mixing in their casual surfy instrumentals with foreboding warnings of a country on the brink of climate catastrophe. Whether or not RBCF will lean more into this serious political territory, only time will tell.

RBCF are currently on a UK/EU tour with Stella Donnelly until the end of June. They will also be playing at Splendour in the Grass later this year and will be doing an Endless Rooms tour over in the US in July.