With Endless Rooms, It's Still the Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever You Love, but This Time With Some New Tricks up Their Sleeves

The Melbourne quintet are back for their third record and it's one of the year's best.

Another week, another review for another killer Australian band.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever has been in my heavy rotation since The French Press EP, the Melbourne band’s debut on Sub Pop. Combining three singer/guitarists and 80s college jangle-pop is an automatic “heck yes” in my book, and the follow-up full-length Hope Downs is easily one of my favorite records of the past five years. When Sideways to New Italy dropped during the first few months of the pandemic in 2020, I found myself disappointed. It might have been the times, but Sideways to New Italy seemed to have the same problem as Is This It and Room On Fire, the first two albums by The Strokes - maybe there wasn’t enough development, or perhaps, they were further honing their craft.

Regardless, I’ve been taking in the singles with anticipation for RBCF’s new record, Endless Rooms. I can happily say that the charm is the third time as these Aussies assuredly explore new sonic territory, benefiting the songs that follow their now-recognizable indie rock formula.

You’re familiar with the set-up at this point: quarantines have completely disrupted band life. No touring equals a more collaborative writing process. Band records in an unconventional communal setting and self-produces their most refreshing work in some time. Endless Rooms follows this format in that RBCF worked through Australia’s longer lockdowns, with members writing their separate material before finally coming together at brothers Tom and Joe Russo’s family vacation home.

The house's high ceilings featured on the album cover breathe new life into the band’s triple-guitar attack, and the ultimate winner is “Dive Deep,” a five-minute venture into the 70s that builds around Joe White’s enormous guitar hook. It’s the six-string bliss RBCF has teased in the past, but here they finally go all in and one can only wonder if the group worked on this record without outside influence, except for Matt Duffy’s engineering effort. The band cites “Dive Deep” as the song that first clicked in the home setting and would shape the rest of the record.

“Blue Eye Lake” is another wonderful tune that pushes the group to new sonic places, as it begins with phasing in its four to the floor beat while building melodies around the backing vocals. It ultimately leads to a towering bridge that finds White and Fran Keaney again pushing the RBCF brand to new places through an auditory freakout.

Sunny Melodies and dark lyrical undertones are scattered throughout the Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever songbook, and Endless Rooms takes this idea to many places. From lockdowns to the wildfires that tore through the countryside last fall or the ignorant behavior of their fellow citizens, there’s plenty of hidden heaviness here. “Open Your Windows” is a number that has been stewing for years and addresses Bob Dylan's comment about Australia in the 70s and their narrowmindedness. What was once an eight-minute plus jam is now a two-minute breezer encouraging the country to open their minds to a changing world and sounds like a direct answer to almost everywhere in the western hemisphere over the past few years.

While Sideways to New Italy was a retread, Endless Rooms is bold enough to add sensational layers to the comfortable gears that drive the singles on the album's front half. “Tidal River” and “The Way It Shatters” address the apathy of the times, but there’s no denying the synth hooks that have found their way onto this album. It’s also worth noting how fantastic the band’s rhythm section is on the record, with Joe Russo’s driving bass and Marcel Tussie’s drum work taking a life of their own on songs like “My Echo.”

Everyone has scars from the past few years, but Endless Rooms is one of those records that reaps the benefits of a band being forced off the road and given the time to develop some unfamiliar tricks. We’ve been gifted so many outstanding “at home” records over the past sixteen months, but Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is here with one that is ear-catching and is too good to be missed.

Endless Rooms is available now on Sub Pop.

This week is the strongest for new releases in months, so I’ll be back Friday to wrap up an embarrassment of melodious riches! Don’t want to miss out? Subscribe now to Check This Out!

Hear songs from Endless Rooms and more on the Good Ass Songs 2022 playlist!