The Explorers Club - Freedom Wind (Dead Oceans)
3/5
By: Charlie Bradford
Good morning (or afternoon, or evening even...) and welcome to The Beach Boys appreciation club! Please will all members behave in an orderly and well mannered fashion and obey the rules of The Beach Boys appreciation club, which are as follows:
1. Appreciate the soulful sounds of The Beach Boys
2. Appreciate them to such an extent that you put together a band and write songs that could very much be by The Beach Boys.
Jason, James, Dave, Neil, Stefan and Chris (or The Explorers Club) could have actually really been in this club (had it existed, which it should) because their debut album Freedom Wind really does owe everything, everything to The Beach Boys.
Opener 'Forever' dallies a bit at the beginning before a drum roll launches it into a soft and high pitched love ballad, with a brief electronic guitar and keys freak out, nifty drum rolls and the high pitched yelp of 'Weee could last forever, but baby don't you cry..."right until the bitter end. Elsewhere, 'Honey, I Don't Know Why' seems to attempt to put a modern spark on things, but still drifts into the band's less exciting comfort zone (even though it does sound like the Cookie Monster singing in the background). 'Don't Forget The Sun', 'Do You Love Me' and 'Hold Me Tight' are just classic Beach Boys rehased, but it's 'Last Kiss' that's the real diamond in the grass (not the rough, as the rest of the LP is anything but rough) - it's catchy, pacier than anything else where and just sweet enough without being sickly.
'If You Go', 'In the Country' and 'Safe Distance' are slow gushy affairs, gently voiced, harmonies soft, guitars slow and percussion ever so quiet forming to make little more than wishy washy ballads. 'In the Country' particularly has an undercurrent of country, maybe to make it suit the title. Final track and album namesake 'Freedom Wind' could also be put into this little group, yet it does more body to it than the rest with slightly grandiose drum and key interplay, Jason taking his vocals up to a Lennonesque level.
In conclusion, whilst Explorers Club don't exactly hover over the edge of a precipice of big new sound, they take the Beach Boys, add the occasional sprinkle of Beatles and maybe for that slightly modern twist, an ever so slight touch of The Avalanches. Don't' read too much in to that last comparison - basically, if you like happy clappy sixties shit, you'll be all over this.
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