Clash the Truth

An album where just enough business-as-usual is sacrificed for genuine growth.

It hard to work out what's more annoying from the rest, be it Dustin Payseur's forgot-my-gym-kit vocals, the self-important but frankly juvenile ambient interludes, otr the neat riffs, which sound like plugins from some indie-pop iPad composition app. [May 2013, p.67]

Combined with the head-in-the-sky ambience of the subgenre, the result is an album far more interesting and ambitious than mere nostalgia rock.

They’re wisps and fragments that might leave you feeling nostalgic for the nostalgia that marked Payseur’s past. If only the messages contained within the songs rang as true as the guitars.

Clash the Truth is Payseur evolving, the band shifting in a direction that’s probably unlike what they previously imagined themselves moving toward.

Despite the undying retromania, the gimmicky production, and the at-times frustratingly short song times (this is very much a record that will breeze by without listeners noticing time ticking away), Clash the Truth is tuneful and nuanced enough to warrant repeat listens even after other like-minded travelers are inevitably forgotten in favor of the next musical revival.

The beauty of Beach Fossils has always been in the tension between Payseur's disaffected deadpan and the band's super-visceral live shows (before Beach Fossils, he spent years playing in hardcore bands) and on Clash much of that post-punk energy translates seamlessly.

There are two fairly strange intermezzo experiments and a few heavier-hitting sing-a-longs thrown in to excite ardent fans of their self-titled debut, but overall the album sacrifices listenability to broadcast and hint at Payseur’s “I will say what I will” evolutions to come.

With cuts like the melodically nifty “Taking Off” and the high-impact jangle-and-scree “Careless,” Beach Fossils find the right balance often enough.

A passive-aggressive album like Clash the Truth, which just sounds kind of confused.

In all, Clash the Truth is a major step forward for Beach Fossils, and it’s certainly an album that I’m not going to forget about so easily, if ever at all.

All in all, Clash the Truth is exactly the record Beach Fossils should have made at this point, reinforcing all the things that made them good while adding some excellent new wrinkles and boosting the production values.

Beach Fossils have found a balance that's better than anyone could have hoped for.

Overall, Clash The Truth isn't so much a departure from Beach Fossils' playful innocence as a more a mature statement of intent documenting Payseur's coming of age as both a musician and songwriter.

Clash The Truth is an accomplished album that should see Beach Fossils leave behind lo-fi slacker pop's balmy evenings.

In the end, pretty and vacant just about covers it. [Mar 2013, p.94]

The new one is faster, hookier, cleaner. [No. 95, p.52]

Payseur offers little besides the opening track that looks forward. Clash the Truth suffers because of this, playing as an introduction for a band that is to come, a band that will have sonics to match their musical ambitions, that could break free of their hazy daydreams to which they remain shackled.

Beach Fossils have delivered an album of shimmering guitars and an ebulliently bouncy rhythm that is simply a beautiful listen.