Beach Patrol “Levity” and “Making Waves”

Bands are sometimes like people and you make your mind up about them within seconds. That’s certainly true about Beach Patrol. It only took a few seconds of first track “Clown” for us to know that we would love them. The song itself is a deceptively simple, pop rock song. It has a melody and a charm that will get you smiling from the off. That’s a trick that Beach Patrol are able to pull off with similar great songs like “Lease of Life” and “Weird Weird Weird”.

We’re huge fans of Elvis Costello and we can only presume Beach Patrol are as well, because tracks like the brilliant “Don’t Panic” and “Just As I Suspected” have a real Costello feel to them. They’re great guitar pop songs. Beach Patrol are able to deliver great power pop songs but without ever falling into sounding cliched.

They’re also able to throw in a bit of a country twang on tracks like “Get It Together” and “The Nerve”. But we’re not talking Hank Williams country, it’s more early Wilco. They also show a sensitive side on the more delicate “Hands of Love”.

They keep the album short, another simple trick that many bands fail to follow. The result is that this album brings a perfect little burst of fun and energy in your life. If you do want more of the band (and why wouldn’t you?) they released another album last year. That’s called “Making Waves” and, yet again, it’s packed full of great pop rock songs. It’s a little less produced than “Levity” and has a slightly ‘rougher’ feel. But, in many ways, that allows their Costello esque pop sound to have a rawer quality. That rawness almost makes the quality of the songs even more striking.

One thing’s for sure, you definitely need to go out and buy both of these albums and welcome Beach Patrol into your life. It may be very early into the new year, but we’re already sure that they are going to be one of our favourite discoveries of 2020!