Album Review :: Beach Slang :: Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Beach Slang :: Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street :: Tiny Engines

If you are familiar with Beach Slang, I am not going to tell you anything that you don’t already know. With Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street they add to their already fantastically haunting sound. Every time I listen to this EP, it takes me by surprise. It is like I never quite remember how fucking great it is. Instead it hits me in the gut, I close my eyes, and let it wash over me.

Though only four tracks, it is full and robust. Each track has a dash of menace and a dash of melancholy.  All Fuzzed Out is breathy, intoxicating, and catchy in sort of raw and visceral way. If I was a moody teenager it would be a great song for a make out session in a basement and for the last song on a mix tape.  Dirty Cigarettes is a new wave-ish song with slightly distorted vocals – think 80s brit new wave mixed with 90s garage punk – gritty yet still melodic. American Girls and French Kisses is a bit faster and more upbeat than the rest, yet not a poppy track by any stretch.

We Are Nothing is hands down my favorite track on this album, and possibly my favorite Beach Slang track over all. It is stripped, raw, and passionate. It is breathy, raspy, and intense. Though I am rarely the one to pick out the acoustic track as my favorite,  I think the fact that there is only an acoustic guitar and you can hear the pressure on each string is what makes this track so powerful.

The one thought that was really prevalent through my countless listens to this album is, I hear a lot of decent albums every day, more than I have time to write about, and though I am sure a good portion of them are just as heartfelt as Beach Slang’s Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street, most can’t convey it. Most sound like a lite version of their favorite bands and influences, and though I can’t really point out anything wrong with those albums, I just can never find the heart. Beach Slang is one of those bands who pour their guts out on the stage for everyone.