There’s certainly a case to be made for Australia as the home of the world’s most prolific independent bands. Look around the indie landscape and you’ll see a raft of bands consumed by urgency, incessantly touring and sometimes unveiling multiple full-length recordings in a year. It could be argued that bands like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are the model for the new wave of Australian independent acts.
That’s part of what makes San Cisco’s latest album such a curiosity. Coming a full three years after the band’s self-titled debut, the band’s latest outing, Gracetown, presents a band that’s okay with taking its time. Indeed, many had thought the worst of San Cisco – with sporadic live appearances and no new recordings, some had assumed that the beloved Fremantle quartet hung up their guitars without so much as a farewell tour.
Luckily for us, the band have simply spent the interim formulating more undeniable indie pop alchemy, which has now resulted in an effort far more accomplished, precise, and mature than the release that preceded it. Gracetown presents listeners with a San Cisco that has come into greater command of their songwriting faculties, as well as a marked boost in musicianship.
One of the most potent displays of the band’s unique acumen is the fact that they haven’t bothered to reinvent the wheel on Gracetown. Instead, the band have taken the “squelchy, crispy, streamlined, hairy, indie” that fans first fell in love with and matured it. The San Cisco sound is no longer than of a happy-go-lucky teen skipping merrily with thoughts of a true love. It’s now a more pensive and poised figure in its 20s.
“Maybe we could be magic, stuck in emotional traffic / Is this some kind of magic? / I’m a sucker for you tricks“, sings Scarlett Stevens, who shares vocal duties with Jordi Davieson, on ‘Magic’. And while the tune is characterised by crisp, summery production, a particularly charming beatbox rhythm from Stevens, and chime-like guitars, the lyrics are far from frivolous, deftly playing with sly metaphors about young love.
While we’re on the subject of Stevens’ beatbox, which is admittedly more Justin Timberlake than Doug E Fresh, it’s important to note the mesh of influences that interplay on Gracetown. The band manage to craftily mix elements from indie rock, garage, dance, disco, hip-hop, and pop, and turn them into coherent musical works that cannot be separated from the band. San Cisco manage to wield their influences, instead of just wearing them.
Back to the album, though, after we’ve become enraptured by the shimmering, high-energy trifecta of ‘RUN’, ‘Too Much Time Together’, and ‘Magic’, we’re met with ‘Snow’, where the music takes on a far more brooding tone. With its warbling synths, and lines like, “Touched down from New York, back to LA / Forgot to get you flowers on your birthday“, the song has its counterpoint in a chorus that pumps and stomps, as the lyrics persist with icy meditations on a crumbling love.
‘Jealousy’ provides another highlight, noteworthy not only for its novel arrangement and instrumental ideas, but for featuring a cameo from Preatures frontwoman Isabella Manfredi. While the track almost justifies the comparisons often made between Davieson and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig, Manfredi’s vocals lend the track and the album a certain cocksure rockstar grit.
If there’s one takeaway from Gracetown it’s that San Cisco are a band that’s comfortable with time. Not only do they bide their time with releases (as it stands, they’re two for two), but the songs on Gracetown show musicians that are comfortable with maturing and presenting themselves as such.
Gracetown is out now via Albert Productions/ Fat Possum Records
